Today’s quote comes to us from former San Francisco Mayor, current California Governor and, apparently, future presidential aspirant, Gavin Newsom.
It concerns President Trump’s decision to pull $4 billion dollars of federal funding for the California high-speed “bullet train”, connecting Los Angeles, San Francisco and Central Valley, on the grounds that “The Railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will. This project was Severely Overpriced, Overregulated, and NEVER DELIVERED.”
Governor Newsom’s reaction?
“The Authority has met every obligation, as confirmed by repeated federal reviews, as recently as February 2025. America’s only high-speed rail project underway is fast approaching the track-laying phase.”
Does he have a point? Well, let’s look at the timeline and cost.
California voters approved the high-speed train project in 2008. It started in 2009. The original state allocation for this project was about $9 billion dollars. It was promised for completion in 2020.
It is now 2025. The project has run up a cost of about $135 billion dollars, with the federal government either contributing, or on the hook for, almost $20 billion of it. And the project is nowhere even remotely near completion.
Is that a good reason for the federal government to stop sending more billions to California to “complete” this project? You tell me.
I award Gavin Newsom Quote Of The Day “honors” for trying to convince us (special emphasis on the “con” part of the word) that this is anything but an incredibly insane boondoggle.
