XPost: alt.california, misc.transport.rail.americas, alt.politics.democrats XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics

https://pjmedia.com/david-manney/2025/07/16/trump-ends-boondoggle-on- rails-n4941827

One history professor whose lectures I thoroughly enjoyed in college
started one semester by sharing his scale model of the Titanic. That ship,
he said, represented the symbol of the greatest technological advancements
in human history up to that point.

When it launched, the Titanic wasn't merely a ship. At the time, she was
simply the largest moving object ever made. The ship's construction pushed
the boundaries of what industrial engineering could achieve in 1912.

To succeed, Harland & Wolff needed to build special tools, such as
entirely new gantry systems, forge unprecedented steel slipways, and
expand dry docks just to accommodate the Titanic.

The ship required over 3 million rivets, many miles of electrical wiring,
and a propulsion system that combined steam-powered pistons with a next- generation turbine. That hybrid propulsion system was something no
passenger liner had ever attempted.

My professor told us that the entire project needed new forms of
steelwork, riveting techniques, and shipyard tooling that had never
existed before. He spent easily 15 minutes explaining just how special the Titanic was, especially in 1912.

All of that, he explained, illustrated just how special the Titanic was.
The height of human achievement.

The point he drove home?

It sunk!

Whenever I read about the California speed rail, I think of that lecture.

In 2008, California was dreaming of a 220-mile-per-hour, 'frisco to La
train ride using clean energy, zero gridlock, and THE shining symbol of
the infrastructure for the 21st century started 17 years ago.

All those dreams and what happened? A taxpayer nightmare: A taxpayer-
funded ghost train stuck in the dirt of the Central Valley. Over sixteen
years and $11 billion later, echoes of the Titanic ring familiar.

Wielding the mantle of common sense, again, President Trump announced that Washington is done footing the bill.

Politics didn't drive this decision. It was an act of mercy.

The Fantasy That Became a Money Pit
With an initial budget of $33 billion, the California High-Speed Rail
Authority left the train station. Fifteen years down the track, that
budget tripled. Two years later, those numbers became abstract. Depending
on whom you ask, estimates ranged from $106 billion to $130 billion. There wasn't a concrete endpoint, literally or figuratively.

The Left loved to point out just how little they perceived Trump's wall
had been built, yet they've never discussed the only 119 miles of track
that've been completed, from Madera to Bakersfield.

That headline-making bullet train connects two California cities that many
of the state's residents would have a hard time locating on a map. It's
like a large company promising to build an unsinkable luxury cruise liner
that ultimately sank due to arrogance.

Yet, despite any rose-colored glasses, there isn't any good news. Trains
are not running. The Federal Railroad Administration declared the project
to be "unviable" in its last audit.

The oversight agency didn't throw a penalty flag; it dropped reality.

Newsom’s Vanity Project
I know, writing "Newsom" and "vanity" is redundant, but please bear with
me.

Despite the lack of progress, California Governor Gavin Newsom insists
that the high-speed rail project remains viable.

In 2019, he backpedaled from the full coast-to-coast plan and narrowed his goals to the Central Valley's "test section," calling it a proof of
concept.

That was years and another billion dollars ago. The proof of concept
proved that the only thing proven was the state government's uncanny
ability to waste money while declaring success.

The dogged optimism that Newsom showed was more about his legacy than
about transit. In the legend of his mind, this train project wasn't a
policy failure. Instead, it's his Mount Rushmore defining moment.

Newsom doesn't see himself as the latest governor to fumble a $130 billion project, one veiled in vanity. He knew himself to be the Robert Moses of
the West Coast, never minding the delays, lawsuits, permit hangups, union sweetheart deals, or environmental impact assessments that took longer
than it would take Bernie Sanders to reach for his check when the dinner
bill came due.

Trump's Cut Was Inevitable
President Trump’s announcement wasn’t a shock. It was a matter of when,
not if. A sane federal government has no business funding a project that produces less than nothing. At least when you build a bridge to nowhere,
people can imagine crossing it. The California rail fantasy hasn't even
offered that.

Trump’s exact words are written in part on Truth Social:

Thanks to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, not a SINGLE penny in
Federal Dollars will go towards this Newscum SCAM ever again,"

The left will probably bristle at the phrasing, but not the facts. He’s
right and bold enough to say what career politicians in both parties have quietly whispered for years.

The feds had already attempted to resolve this issue in 2019, withdrawing
$929 million from the project. Biden reversed it, reinflating the blimp.

Now that President Trump’s back, we see a leader lighter in patience and
firmer in resolve.

Bureaucracy: The Real Engine Behind This Train
This isn’t just about a failed transit system. It’s about the broader
addiction to government grandeur, the idea that massive spending equals progress, even when the results amount to a pile of gravel and invoices.

California’s rail saga should be taught in every high school civics class
as a master class in government arrogance. The state formed committees to oversee subcommittees that evaluated contracts for lines that didn’t
exist. Meanwhile, the actual train remains stuck in concept art and artist renderings. It’s easier to draw the train than to build it.

And still, every year like clockwork, Sacramento asks for more. More
federal funds, environmental exemptions, time, and, above all, more
patience. What’s the return?

More of the same. Nothing.

The Private Sector Could've Built the Rails and Painted the Train Twice
Imagine if a private consortium had been handed $11 billion and told to
build a rail line from L.A. to San Francisco. Given the right contractor,
it would have been completed by now, including terminals, security, solar roofing, and possibly even a profit margin, potentially while under
budget.

Instead, the decision was to give it to the same folks who bring you the
DMV and Caltrans road construction schedules.

The result?

The project has produced fewer deliverables than an intern with no login credentials. (Shocked face.)

And the price tag keeps climbing. Inflation. Material costs. “Unexpected” underground conditions. Litigation delays. You name it, the excuses are printed, bound, and preloaded into press briefings.

The Green Mirage
Supporters often wrap this train in the green flag, arguing it’s about
clean energy and climate progress. That argument evaporates when you
realize that not one soul has been riding it. Phantom trains don't save emissions. Pollution isn't reduced by running diesel trucks full of construction supplies across 119 miles of scorched farmland for a decade.

There’s nothing green about wasting billions. There’s nothing sustainable
about a project that can’t even sustain momentum.

When Idealism Meets Asphalt
California’s high-speed rail effort is the collision of idealism and
asphalt. A place where utopian ambition was supposed to manifest in
gleaming train stations and humming engines, but instead dissolved into
fiscal molasses and bureaucratic sludge.

Trump’s decision to cut federal funding is more than a political move;
it’s a restoration of accountability. The message: Grand ideas don’t
excuse gross incompetence.

You want a train? Build it with results, not slogans.

Final Thoughts
The California high-speed rail project didn’t fail because it was too
bold. It failed because it was managed like a student council project with
a Pentagon budget. In the end, it proved a fundamental truth: the federal government should stop playing SimCity with your money.

If the residents of California want the train, let them finish it on their
own dime, their own terms, and with more than their own consequences.
They'll have to learn to live without continuous blank checks.

It's about bloody time that the good people of California stop looking at
me to build what's amounting to a make-believe train.

Reading Legacy Media Is Like Taking Dating Advice from AOC.


--
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.

Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

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