California's Bullet Train Derailment

This WSJ editorial (Dec. 18, 2013) is not available online without subscription.  It's a good lesson about the financing and politics of rail development in the US.  It takes to task the California Rail Authority for ignoring serious financing gaps and legal requirements of a 2008 state bond measure in order to continue on track toward construction of a ($70 billion) high speed train from Anaheim to to San Francisco.  A Sacramento Superior Court Judge ruled that state funds are off limits until certain requirements are met, there are no private investors willing to put up money for a federal match grant, and environmental clearances are not complete for 270 miles of the 500-mile track.  There is no finance plan at all for the first 300 miles of track.

The editorial also points out that, "Public opinion has swung sharply against the bullet train since 2008.  Polls show that others by two-to-one would derail the choo-choo in a referendum.  High-speed rail helped cost Democrats a special election for a state Senate seat this summer and a Congressional race last November, both in the Central Valley."

But ....

"Despite these setbacks, which make completion of the first 300-mile segment a virtual impossibility, the White House is not blocking the authority from using federal stimulus funds to seize property and prepare ground for construction.  On Friday, the State Public Works Board approved the authority's first request to take a commercial property under eminent domain.

The rail authority hopes that once enough businesses and homes are destroyed, politicians in Sacramento and Washington will feel obligated to ride to the train's financial rescue.  Maybe that's the Obama Administration's plan too."

Four thoughts:

1. Sounds like the PMLR  or LOTWP - once started it had to be finished.  "We've come too far to stop now."
2. The bullet train will undoubtedly cost more than the original estimate - if the project is ever finished.
3. If politicians become concerned that a significant portion of their electorate is against rail (or whatever), you can expect they will be hesitant to divulge their real feelings on the subject.  
4. Even if we don't live in California, it's our money and our debt too!