Want to waste California taxpayer money? Quit on high-speed rail before it’s done

The mammoth construction project was too costly, the critics said. Besides that, it was going to be too disruptive, environmentally harmful and an unfair burden for taxpayers.

Certainly, such criticisms have been leveled against California’s bullet-train project in recent years. But in this case, those opposing views were against none other than ... the Golden Gate Bridge.

Now one of California’s preeminent landmarks and most-photographed objects known around the world, the Golden Gate Bridge faced strong opposition when it was proposed by Joseph Strauss in the 1920s.

The point illustrates some facts about major public works projects: They typically have major environmental impacts, disrupt lives and stir up strong opposition.

The high-speed rail project has no shortage of critics, many of them elected Republican leaders who opposed the idea of clean-running electric trains that could travel more than 200 mph and connect Los Angeles to the Bay Area.

Former President Donald Trump was a leading opponent, but with his leaving the White House, there is a new hope among rail supporters for better backing by President Joe Biden.

And their hopes might be realized. Biden has proposed a massive $2.3 trillion program to rebuild the nation’s roads, highways, bridges and rail lines. While Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says the $80 billion devoted to rail improvements does not target any one area, he indicated that California’s high-speed rail could “potentially” be funded.

“We are pleased with ‘potentially’ at this point,” said Melissa Figueroa, a spokeswoman with the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

Federal investment into the rail project would be the right thing. Biden says he wants to “build back better.” Aiming new funding toward California’s rail system would be a great step.

Fresno to Bakersfield

Critics of high-speed rail quickly point to what they say is mismanagement of the project. For example, the rail authority still does not have control of 500 parcels out of the 2,300 needed to lay the track from Madera to Bakersfield, the first phase of the project.

As the project takes longer to complete, it gets more expensive. Part of that has been caused by delays in acquiring land, but that is due partly to today’s complicated environmental process — a reality that did not exist when the Golden Gate Bridge was constructed.

The project has also suffered from an overuse of change orders to plans, which the authority has acknowledged.

The 119-mile segment from Madera to the Kern County city of Shafter is now estimated to cost $13.8 billion — $1.3 billion over an estimate made last year. If the system connected Los Angeles to San Francisco, that would cost $68 billion.

Among the critics is Republican Rep. David Valadao of Hanford. He believes the bullet-train project “has demonstrated itself to be a waste of taxpayers’ hard earned money,” and he wants Biden to work with GOP lawmakers to support other projects in their districts.

Key transportation project

No less of a conservative than Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer has come out in support of high-speed rail. In a March op-ed he co-authored with San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and which was published in The Bee, Dyer wrote of the sizable job and economic benefits of the project.

The rail authority says its first phase has created 2,300 jobs. Another 3,200 jobs will be created in subsequent phases as construction heads to Shafter.

Valadao and fellow Republican Devin Nunes should put on reality glasses and see high-speed rail for what it is: a transformative project that, when completed, will be the envy of the nation. They should join Democrat Jim Costa of Fresno in backing high-speed rail. Costa, independent of Biden’s proposal, has re-introduced the High-Speed Rail Corridor Development Act. It would provide $32 billion to projects in federally designated high-speed corridors.

The real waste would be to not support California’s high-speed project and leave it unfinished. It would be like building only half of the Golden Gate Bridge, then quitting on it.

This story was originally published April 13, 2021 at 5:00 AM.