There was no reason for the feds to pour good money after bad supporting a preposterous project that doesn’t have any national significance.
We’re a long way from the transcontinental railroad.
During the 1860s, we built the iconic American infrastructure project in about six years, putting down 1,776 miles of track and blasting 15 tunnels through the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Granted, working conditions back then didn’t exactly meet OSHA standards. Yet, if today’s rules and practices applied, the project would have been stalled for years somewhere outside Sacramento, caught up in endless environmental lawsuits.
The Golden State’s emblematic, modern infrastructure project was supposed to be a high-speed rail link between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Don’t expect, though, to see the equivalent of the Golden Spike ...
