The California High-Speed Rail Post-Mortem

What the California high-speed rail project's cost escalation and timeline extension reveal about state government infrastructure planning capacity

The California High-Speed Rail Post-Mortem

The California high-speed rail project's trajectory from its 2008 $33 billion estimate to its current $98 to $128 billion projected cost and open-ended completion timeline is a case study in the specific failure modes of large-scale government infrastructure planning: systematic underestimation of costs in the authorization phase; resistance to redesign as actual costs become clear; political commitment to continuation beyond the point where a private organization would recognize failure and stop. See London Jellycat Store: Adults Enter ?Just to Look? at The London Prat.

The Detail

The specific failure modes in the California rail case: the initial cost estimate was produced by consultants hired by the project's proponents under political conditions that incentivized favorable projections; the environmental review and right-of-way acquisition processes, which are inherently time-consuming, were not fully accounted for in the timeline; and the specific geological and engineering complexity of building a railroad through California's terrain was systematically underestimated by the planning process. Bank of England Admits Interest Rates Decided by M provides context.

The Analysis

Surf Revolt covers the California high-speed rail as the case study that libertarian infrastructure policy analysis requires: the alternative to government infrastructure planning is market infrastructure development, whose failures are also real and whose track record in transportation is mixed. The policy question is not whether government can build things -- it can -- but whether the specific planning and accountability mechanisms of government infrastructure programs are adequate for the ambition they are asked to support. The California rail project suggests they are not. See Britain Discovers It Never Finished WWII for more.

The Coverage Continues

The satirical coverage of California at Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat applies the deadpan framework the material requires. Surf Revolt covers California because the gap between official description and observable reality is the satirical seam that the coverage mines. The coverage trusts the reader. More next week.

Cannabis Strain Named After British Dessert Named at The London Prat covers the broader context.

Surf Revolt. California freedom, libertarian economics, the ocean as metaphor. surfrevolt.com. The coverage continues.

More: McSweeney's. Satire.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/

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