Which is EXACTLY the point! As only one example of many, California's "Bullet Train to Nowhere" has already sucked up over 11 BILLION dollars since 2006, and NO part of the promised line is running.
This pretty normal. Projected initial running date is 2030. So of course nothing is running. You have to build the track first; that's how it works.
11 BILLION dollars
...is a drop in the bucket for a large transportation project. The big dig was over 20 billion just to widen a highway in one city that already had a highway. Even the initial segment of CAHSR is projected to connect 5 cities, over hundreds of milesl, all with greenfield development..
The short [editor's note: here "short" means "nearly 500 miles"] segment from Merced to Bakersfield will probably take a total north of 30 billion dollars to complete, with the full, voter-approved line from LA to Frisco totaling 100 billion or more
Correct. What was your point? When they spend billions of dollars to slightly widen a freeway for a few miles, and it accomplishes nothing but increase congestion, which they do constantly all over the country, or when Oregon spends billions on a single bridge, do you even find out about it? Probably not, because it's so normal it's not even newsworthy.
That money isn't literally being heaped on a bonfire or flushed down a toilet - oh no. IT'S ENDING UP IN SOMEONE'S POCKET. CERTAINLY MANY SOMEONES.
Isn't that better? Are you saying it's as scandal that they money isn't flushed down the toilet, but that it's spent on building things? Yes, that's how economies work; when you spend money, the money always ends up in somebody's pocket. In this case it's being used to build a train. You can track the progress if you are interested.
https://buildhsr.com/construction-updates/spring-2024/ . They recently got approval for the trainsets (custom Siemens units) and most grade-separation projects are roughed-in.
And that, my friends, is the entire point. Large public works projects - especially transportation - are a great way to convert public funds into private profits. And so long as the paperwork is in order, the people doing it are legally untouchable.
And here you are totally correct, but there's nothing special about the CAHSR system, except that it's probably worth doing, as opposed to most other transportation projects. The difference is that CAHSR is publicized. When Oregon spends 10 billion dollars to replace a single bridge, you don't even hear about it or care about it.