What is it with Democrats and trains? Ignoring geographic, cultural and demographic reality they’re dead set on trying to build the kinds of mass people movers common in Europe.

As the anti-individual liberty party, their obsession makes a deranged sort of sense. If you want absolute control over the lives of Americans, what better way to achieve it than to deny them freedom of movement? That was a substantial part of the motivation for rapidly failing electric vehicle mandates, the mandatory installation of various kinds of electronic spies in vehicles, the current trend of “15-minute cities” where every necessary good or service is a 15 minute walk from one’s home, and of course, California’s high-speed rail to nowhere, among mankind’s most notorious money pits.

Graphic: Wasco Viaduct 2024 March. Wikimedia Commons.org. Public Domain.

Approved by California voters in 2008, it was supposed to have run from San Francisco to Los Angeles by 2030 at a cost of a mere $33 billion. Eventually, it was downscaled to a very short route in the Central Valley and costs are over $100 billion and still rising. All that and not a single foot of rail—for a railroad!—has been laid. A variety of bridges and other concrete and steel monoliths have been constructed which will surely baffle future archeologists as they have no discernible purpose for a railroad that never was or will be. Might they have had some religious significance? Were they primitive astronomical observatories? Fertility temples?

It now appears Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is preparing to ensure the bafflement of future archeologists:

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy today released the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Compliance Review Report finding that the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA)’s high speed rail project is in default of the terms of its federal grant awards. The detailed report, which is over 300 pages, contains 9 key findings including missed deadlines, budget shortfalls, and overrepresentation of projected ridership. The two grants total roughly $4 billion in taxpayer money…

In a letter to CHSRA’s CEO, Ian Choudri, the FRA noted its report identified a trail of project delays, mismanagement, waste, and skyrocketing costs. The project has received approximately $6.9 billion in federal dollars in roughly fifteen years but has not laid a single high-speed track. Even with continued federal support, the project is far short of the funding needed to finish just a fraction of the track.

California is facing at budget deficit of at least $12 billion. Withholding federal funds could easily hasten the final doom of an always doomed railroading pipe dream.

This report exposes a cold, hard truth: CHSRA has no viable path to complete this project on time or on budget. CHSRA is on notice — If they can’t deliver on their end of the deal, it could soon be time for these funds to flow to other projects that can achieve President Trump’s vision of building great, big, beautiful things again. … Our country deserves high-speed rail that makes us proud – not boondoogle trains to nowhere.

And across the nation in the blue paradise of Washington DC an unnecessary and failed streetcar project is about to plunge into history’s ashheap.

Fifteen years ago, DC laid the track for a 2.2 mile streetcar system. Built because street cars are “environmentally friendly” and “aesthetically pleasing” DC has wasted $200 million taxpayer dollars on that greenie boondoggle which has been in operation for only a decade.

So, obviously they’ll scrap the streetcar infrastructure and let people drive again? Of course not. Dems can’t admit failure:

The electric bus that will replace the H Street streetcar will utilize the existing overhead power cables, meaning it will still suffer from some of the existing drawbacks that the failed street-level rail system did. Notably, the existing rail line lacks a barrier separating it from the street, which has resulted in the streetcar being unable to proceed forward when a car is double-parked and blocking its track. While the electric bus will not be confined to a track in the same manner as the streetcar, the overhead cables will still limit its maneuverability.

Electric buses powered by overhead power cables?! Able to drive only the same 2.2 mile route? 

Conventional electric buses have proved to be disasters. Lacking the range and ability to handle normal bus routes, particularly in cold or hot weather, they’ve also proved to be nearly impossible to repair due to parts shortages and bus maker bankruptcies.

DC now wants to somehow obtain electric buses specially—and very expensively--made to interface with overhead power systems for a route of only 2.2 miles. Well, at least Dems are consistent. They always choose the least efficient, most costly solutions to non-existent problems.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.