THE ELEPHANT IN SACRAMENTO: The bullet train is California’s biggest infrastructure project — but it’s seldom discussed in governor’s race.

The leading candidates for governor have said little publicly about how they would fix dire problems in the $77-billion mega-project that has already overrun its initial cost estimate by $44 billion.

The next governor, as well as the state Senate and Assembly, will inherit a financial storm and face the tasks of finding money to bore tunnels under three mountain ranges, develop complex passages through the state’s biggest urban regions and avoid further political compromises that would slow travel along the route.

Yet the California political system is largely shying away from addressing the problems at the very moment when the project’s chief proponent, Gov. Jerry Brown, prepares to leave office.

For a fraction of the cost, California could have done something about its hideous roads, and invested in desalination plants to fix its dire water situation.