Two from the New York Post:
April 30 - California punts on high-speed rail plan as furor grows over new $231B price tag
Also at the Post:
Chick-fil-A employee accused of stealing $80,000 with mac & cheese schemeThat at least seems less cheesy and more realistic than the California story.
By January 2022 the railroad was already being headlined:
We've been following this one for a while, some links below.
From Tech Startups, January 21:
California’s $100 Billion High-Speed Rail Boondoggle Project: How California’s High-Speed Rail Went From a $33 Billion Project to Become the Single Largest Public Infrastructure Disaster in U.S. History
A few months later we saw:
October 2022
France Tried To Warn California That The California High-Speed Rail Plan Was A $100 Billion Farce
....The state was warned repeatedly that its plans were too complex. SNCF, the French national railroad, was among bullet train operators from Europe and Japan that came to California in the early 2000s with hopes of getting a contract to help develop the system.
The company’s recommendations for a direct route out of Los Angeles and a focus on moving people between Los Angeles and San Francisco were cast aside, said Dan McNamara, a career project manager for SNCF.
The company pulled out in 2011. “There were so many things that went wrong,” Mr. McNamara said. “SNCF was very angry. They told the state they were leaving for North Africa, which was less politically dysfunctional. They went to Morocco and helped them build a rail system.”
Morocco’s bullet train started service in 2018.....
There you have it, North Africa is less politically corrupt than California. Just amazing.
Here are a couple posts from 2011:
California High-speed Rail Costs Triple to $100 Billion (and it will be arriving late)
California High Speed Rail: The Man Who Predicted The Cost and the Delay
