California’s high-speed rail project is a slow-motion joke – San Bernardino Sun

I wanted to believe.

When California announced plans to build a high-speed rail connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco, I had dreams of sipping coffee in Union Station and arriving in the Bay Area before I finished my podcast. Finally—something sleek, green, and fast. Like the Jetsons, but real. Instead, we got a bloated, half-built mess somewhere near Fresno. It’s been 17 years since voters approved the project, and the only thing moving quickly is the budget—racing past $100 billion with no finish line in sight.

We were promised a bullet train. What we got is a blank check on wheels.

And here’s the kicker: this isn’t some groundbreaking new technology. Japan rolled out its first bullet train in 1964. That’s the same year Gilligan’s Island premiered and the Beatles came to America. Why is California spending $100 billion to recreate a train the Japanese perfected before we landed on the moon?

And that’s what drives me nuts. It’s not just a waste of taxpayer dollars. It’s a wasted opportunity.

California is home to some of the brightest minds on the planet. Walt Disney built a futuristic monorail in Anaheim in 1959—before the first bullet train even debuted in Japan. Instead of asking how fast we can copy Japan, why aren’t we asking: What could California invent that the rest of the world would want to copy from us? This isn’t Tomorrowland—it’s Yesterdayland with cost overruns.

We’ve got the engineers who design Mars rovers, the coders who built the AI in your phone, and enough venture capital to fund every weird idea Elon Musk has ever tweeted. Remember the Hyperloop? That futuristic vacuum-tube system where pods fly at airline speeds on the ground? Born in California. Developed here. We even did a test track. And then…nothing. India and the UAE are exploring it. Meanwhile, we’re still arguing over where to put the station in Bakersfield. At best, we’re on track to finish a segment between Merced and Bakersfield—connecting farmland to more farmland—with no clear plan or timeline for reaching either end of the state’s population centers.

Or take maglev trains—magnetic levitation systems with no wheels, no friction, and speeds over 300 mph. Japan’s building one. So is China. Germany’s in on it too. Us? We’re still litigating over where a train might maybe someday go.

Look, I’m not against high-speed rail. I’m against low-speed leadership and vision.

Imagine what $100 billion could’ve done if we’d used it as venture capital for the next big thing in transit. We could’ve launched an innovation hub to develop new propulsion systems. Held an X-Prize competition for zero-emission travel. Funded the first truly clean, fast, scalable transit technology that California could patent, build, and export to the world.

Instead, we’re building a money pit through farmland, praying that one day our great-grandkids might ride it to Modesto.

This is the worst of both worlds: a price tag from the future with technology from the past.

And don’t tell me “it’s too late to change course.” That’s the logic that leads to burning more money just because we’ve already burned so much. It’s like being halfway through building a treehouse, realizing it’s upside down, and deciding to keep going because you’ve already bought the nails.

Governor Newsom has a chance to fix this. Press pause. Gather the best innovators, engineers, and urban planners in California. Ask one question: Can we do better? Spoiler: Yes. We can do way better.