Your California high-speed choo-choo update

A little over a week ago we reported out on a Sacramento judge that ruled against California’s high speed rail commission stating that the project had not met the financial nor environmental promises made to the voters of California when the high-speed choo-choo project was put on the ballot 5 years ago.


This was called a “major blow” to the project but we remained skeptical for two reasons: 1) The judge never levied a stop work order and 2) the lawless nature of the state's political class that is all-in on high-speed choo-choos would’ve simply ignored any cease and desist handed down from the bench.


State honchos argued that the lawsuit brought about by Central Valley farmers was moot as the facts on the ground currently didn’t match the conditions under which the Farmers were bringing suit… which is kind of a problem when you think about.


Anyway, here’s what we wrote regarding the subject 9 days ago:

What is meant by “revised its business plan to scale back the cost” is to eliminate the funding of the infrastructure required to power the rail system and to eliminate the funding for the actual choo-choos. No lie, gang. This is how you get a project that was advertised as costing in the $33-40 billion range when high-speed rail was put on the ballot back in 2008 to the current $68 price tag when estimates for a fully functioning rail system has been put in the $100-120 billion range.

The state’s powerbrokers did not disappoint when they went on the record this past week with respect to Judge Michael Kenny’s ruling:

Gov. Jerry Brown said Monday that California's high-speed rail project will not be stopped by a judge's ruling that project officials failed to comply with provisions of Proposition 1A, the initiative in which voters approved initial funding for the project in 2008.

"It's not a setback," Brown told reporters at the Lake Tahoe Summit.

He said the ruling "didn't stop our spending, so we're continuing. As we speak we're spending money, we're moving ahead."

Please note that spending appears to be the main focus of activity rather any actual building. The good statist that Brown is, he is really, really excited about spending California tax dollars.


For his part, Judge Kenney has requested more information from both opponents and proponents of the project before taking up the matter again.


Stay tuned to these pages for the latest on the greatest public works boondoggle in the history of western civilization.