By The Editorial Board, The Fresno Bee; June 13, 2019
In today’s heated political climate, it is easy to lose sight of why the high-speed rail project was ever conceived. Its original purpose: To connect Northern and Southern California in an environmentally sound way. Electric, nonpolluting trains would whisk passengers from north to south, and vice versa, in far less time than it takes to drive. The spine of the system would be in the San Joaquin Valley, with the associated economic boost the project would generate.
But the project has been bogged down in cost overruns, court hearings and delays to the construction schedule in the easiest part of the system to build, the flat land in the central San Joaquin Valley. The project’s cost has ballooned from $45 billion to nearly $80 billion. Much of the delay is due to the California High Speed Rail Authority badly misjudging how long it would take to acquire properties along the Valley route.