Shh!! High-Speed Rail Cost Overruns to Be a Secret
9th February 2026
California’s high-speed rail project has become increasingly embarrassing for the state. Originally, a 494-mile line connecting the state’s two most populated urban areas, LA and San Francisco, was supposed to cost $40 billion. Now the state is spending $40 billion on a 171-mile line from Bakersfield to Merced, the state’s ninth and 82nd largest urban areas, while the full Anaheim-to-San Francisco project is expected to cost as much as $135 billion and to open at least 20 years late.
Now, the state has come up with a way to minimize this embarrassment: censorship. Under a proposed new law, the state inspector general could withhold from the public any high-speed rail records that would “reveal weaknesses” in its program. Although similar language was part of the state’s proposed budget submitted to the legislature by the governor’s office, Governor Gavin Newsom denied knowing anything about it a a press conference last week.
They just have to hide it long enough for Newsom to get the Democrat Presidential nomination.