New California governor kills high-speed rail boondoggle

Big news from California: Gov. Gavin Newsom, in his first State of the State speech, has said he is ending the state’s hugely expensive and hopelessly quixotic high-speed rail line. According to the San Francisco Chronicle website, Newsom said the high-speed rail, a project beloved of the just-retired four-term Gov. Jerry Brown, “would cost too much and take too long.”

Cost too much: an estimated $77 billion, far above the cost pitched to voters when the project was approved 52 to 48 percent in 2008. Take too long: its first phase had an estimated completion date of 2033, some 14 years from now.