Newsom Doubles Down on Hopeless High-Speed Rail Project

Newsom Doubles Down on Hopeless High-Speed Rail Project

Pushing back against the winds of change in Washington, DC, California Governor Newsom reiterated his commitment to the state's high-speed rail (HSR) boondoggle while tacitly lending support to a new effort to incinerate taxpayer funds: a 54-mile high-speed connector line that would join HSR with Brightline West service planned for the I-15 corridor.

Newsom participated in a press event on Mondayto celebrate the start of HSR's Railhead Project, where he and others spoke in front of some rail tracks in Kern County. He sought to push back against the opposition point that the project had yet to lay a single mile of track sixteen years after voter approval. He toldattendees:

No state in America is closer to launching high-speed rail than California - and today, we just took a massive step forward. We're moving into the track-laying phase, completing structures for key segments, and laying the groundwork for a high-speed rail network.

But in the Authority's words:

The Railhead Project is necessary for the Authority to receive materials to start construction of temporary freight tracks, which includes delivery of major equipment such as track laying machines, track ties, traction power and Overhead Contact Systems (OCS). The work starts with a period of subgrade preparation, readying the site for the eventual laying of ballast ties and rail for the yard, effectively serving as a location to receive materials required to build the Authority's high-speed rail track.

So, the Authority is still not laying any high-speed rail tracks. Instead, it is starting the process of preparing to lay temporary freight tracks that will eventually facilitate the delivery of the high-speed passenger rail tracks. Hardly a milestone worth a gubernatorial visit.

But the most important news came from an earlier speaker: Arthur Sohikian, Executive Director of the High Desert Corridor Joint Powers Agency. He announced plans for an additional high-speed rail linkbetween Palmdale and Victorville. The new line would join the SF-to-LA high-speed rail project with Brightline West's future service between Rancho Cucamonga and Las Vegas.

Of course, neither of those lines currently exist, and while Brightline appears to have sufficient funding, HSRA has no financial support to build anything south of Bakersfield. To reach Palmdale, the Authority would have to lay another 80 miles of track much of it in tunnels deep below the Tehachapi Mountains.

Without HSR service to Palmdale, the new connector would not be accessible from the Central Valley or Northern California. It would simply join two modestly sized cities whose residents have long become accustomed to getting wherever they need by car.

In early 2023, the project was estimated to costbetween $5.8 billion and $6.6 billion, but, if history is any guide, that range is merely an opening bid.

On the day of Newsom's presser, Representative Kevin Kiley filed HR 213, a billthat would prohibit any additional federal funds to California High-Speed Rail. Kiley's sentiment has been echoed by Department of Government Efficiency co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy, who wrote on X:

This is a wasteful vanity project, burning billions in taxpayer cash, with little prospect for completion in the next decade. President Trump correctly rescinded ~$1BN in federal funds for this boondoggle in 2019, but Biden reversed that & doubled down. Time to end the waste.

In light of the extreme risk to federal funding, Newsom's best option would have been to scale back and wind up the high-speed rail project. That action would have not only saved California taxpayers billions of dollars but would have allowed the Governor to put this embarrassment behind him in time for an expected 2028 Presidential run. Even under the Authority's rosiest (and implausible) scenario, revenue service will not start until the end of 2030. So when he campaigns is Iowa or New Hampshire at the beginning of the next cycle, his best option will be to point to a 171-mile long construction site in his home state.

While California still has its share of high-speed rail fans, voters in other states are unlikely to be impressed with a project that has spent billions and yielded no tangible results. It exemplifies everything wrong with California-style governance, a fact one or more primary rivals are likely to raise.

Marc Joffe is President of the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association and a visiting fellow at California Policy Center.