Governor Moonbeam, meet Mad Max

by Mouser The King Cat

Welcome back Trigger, you handsome chestnut horse. Thanks for writing my post today; I sense neigh-saying ahead …

One of Governor Moonbeam’s utopian projects is a high-speed rail line connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles with a travel time of two hours and 40 minutes. It was approved in a statewide ballot proposition; voters signed off on specific routes and the order in which they were to be constructed.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: The voters were suckers. The funding of this $64 billion project is sketchy at best, a disaster at worst. Now the shell game has started. Construction was to begin in the southern part of the state, but there has been a change of plans. From The Associated Press:

The new plan calls for building the first 250-mile segment from the rural town of Shafter to San Jose at a cost of nearly $21 billion. The first leg would begin operating in 2025 – three years later and 50 miles shorter than the original planned route that would have sent trains to the San Fernando Valley. Project backers are touting it as the first plan to build a fully operable line using only available funding. But a briefing prepared for lawmakers … notes: "The funding outlined by the authority is far from guaranteed and associated risks remain high."

Junior Moonbeams run this project with little input from the Legislature. That could change as funds dry up. Said one restive assemblyman of the new plan: “It makes me feel like I’m going to be with Captain Kirk on the transporter before I’m going to be on high speed rail.”

More likely: A Mad Max of the future finds a practical use for the earthquake-torn raw materials from this unicorn.