California’s ‘Futureland’ High-Speed Rail Is Still Stuck at the Station

In 2008, California voters approved Proposition 1A, giving the green light to start planning a high-speed railway connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles, which would be built by 2020 and cost around $35 billion. Well, it’s 2026, and the Golden State’s “Futureland-esque” project is woefully over-schedule and over-budget, now projected to cost around $135 billion.

Lee Ohanian, a Hoover Institution senior fellow, joins Jack Fowler on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” to discuss California’s Tomorrowland disaster and more:

“It was Disney’s future land. It was trains that would travel as fast as 220 mph. They would move people from LA to San Francisco in two hours and 40 minutes. LA to San Francisco was supposed to have been finished about five years ago, and as you noted, [cost] $35 billion. The price tag could be as high as $135 billion [today].

“Now the project is woefully over budget—woefully behind schedule. And you know, Jack, in 2019, when Gov. [Gavin] Newsom gave his inaugural speech right after he was elected, he noted the problems that were happening with high-speed rail at that time. And he said, in a very interesting way, we don’t have the money to go from San Francisco to Los Angeles. And the project has been subject to not enough oversight and not enough accountability.

“And he was absolutely correct about that.”

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.