Jerry Brown’s favorite billion dollar boondoggle, California High Speed Rail, does not have funds to proceed and is increasingly blocked by courts. The doomed project cannot start until it has at least $4 billion. It only has $3.3 billion, and courts have blocked it from using state money until it identifies where funding for the entire initial project will come from – $31 billion total.
High speed rail is a fine idea if a) funds are available to pay for it and b) it will at least break even. Neither are true about CAHSR. Plus, it cannot ever be as fast as proponents claim. In urban areas approaching San Francisco and Los Angeles, CAHSR must slow down to normal train speeds and stop at vehicle crossings. This means rides will take much longer than projected. The only way it can go full speed in densely populated urban areas is by going above ground on in a tunnels, which would be prohibitively expensive to build.