California Rail Costs Hit $231 Billion

Well, we have a new estimate for California's high -speed rail.You might want to sit down first.Maybe lie down.The current projection for the full Phase 1 build -out is $231 billion.That's up from the $33 billion voters were sold on back in 2008, which means the cost has only gone up by roughly seven times.And by California standards, that's practically on budget.

Now, when voters signed off on this in 2008, the Dream was a high -speed rail line between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The current, revised, dramatically humbled version of that Dream is a train connecting Merced and Bakersfield by 2033.It's rumored that their next fallback position is trying to connect Bakersfield to a slightly nicer part of Bakersfield.