RAIL FAIL: California Goes Full Boondoggle on Train Project.

IF the internet doesn’t change the way people work, reducing both commuting and the demand for business travel, IF the giant project doesn’t mimic almost all similar projects and develop gigantic cost overruns that make a mockery of the initial cost elements, IF resourceful NIMBY groups and their lawyers don’t find too many endangered species in its path or otherwise tie it up in endless litigation, IF self driving cars don’t make rail travel obsolete, IF the fares aren’t so high even with subsidies that passengers shun it, and IF like almost all other passenger rail service in the U.S. it doesn’t lose buckets of money, this project could look like a smart move.

For those who don’t buy the Great Green Train story, this looks like a last ditch effort to project 20th century ideas about transportation into the future, while both appeasing greens (it’s a train!) and lubricating traditional Democratic labor and business constituencies (it’s a gigantic public works project!). It’s brilliant in its own way, but it’s not the kind of thinking California needs.

It’s a boondoggle and a waste of money.