The CEO and board chair of the California High Speed Rail Authority have resigned in disgrace over erroneous cost projections. A peer‐review commission created by the California legislature says the authority’s high‐speed rail plan is “not financially feasible.” Surveys show a majority of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans in the state all oppose construction.
Yet the authority’s scheme to build a new rail line capable of moving trains from Los Angeles to San Francisco in two hours and 40 minutes won’t die unless the state legislature kills it. Officially, the authority plans to begin construction by September 2012, despite the fact that it has less than 10 percent of the money it needs to complete the project.
The tide definitely turned against the plan when the authority published a new business plan admitting that estimated inflation‐adjusted construction costs had more than doubled from $43 billion to $98.5 billion. Moreover, under the new plan the promised 220‐mph trains would not roll until 2033, more than a decade later than voters were promised in 2008.