California Bullet Train Continues Its Hallucinatory Ways

This is an artist’s conception. It will be a very long time before California has anything more than that.California High-Speed Rail Authority

The California bullet train, which is so far behind schedule that it can hardly be said to have a schedule anymore, is nonetheless going forward with a contract they don’t have the money to pay for:

The agency took a key step last week toward issuing a 30-year-long contract to install track, set up high-voltage electrical lines, create a digital signaling system, build a heavy maintenance train garage and obligate future maintenance of the equipment and track.
….“If they approve that contract, it will put the Legislature in a position where it will have very little to say about what happens next, which is exactly why they are trying to do it,” said one key staffer. “But we have until September to make a difference in how they are doing things.”

This whole project has gone from ridiculous to phantasmagorical. Still, the legislature has nothing to complain about. If they don’t like what the rail authority is doing, they can pass legislation to stop it. If they don’t, they have no one to blame but themselves.