California High-Speed Rail Costs Hit $126 Billion with No Tracks

California's ambitious high-speed rail project, approved by voters nearly two decades ago to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles, has ballooned to an estimated $126 billion with no tracks laid as of 2026, according to a recent CBS "60 Minutes" investigation.

Voters in 2008 authorized a $9.95 billion bond measure for the initiative, with the total cost projected at about $33 billion. The plan envisioned trains traveling between the state's two largest cities in under three hours, aiming to reduce pollution and traffic congestion. However, years of delays and escalating expenses have forced officials to scale back to a shorter Central Valley segment linking Bakersfield and Merced, with service not expected before 2033.

The project faces a funding shortfall of roughly $90 billion, prompting state leaders to seek additional resources while acknowledging early miscalculations. "I don't think the voters fully understood, and neither did we in the public sector, what it was going to take to actually get this project delivered," California Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin told "60 Minutes." He noted that negotiating access to about 3,000 parcels of land for the Central Valley...