California Underground 
California’s infamous high-speed rail project has become the most expensive transportation disaster in state history — and it’s not even close to being finished. Promised to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco in under 3 hours, it’s now just a vague plan between Merced and Bakersfield — nowhere near its original vision.
In this episode, Phil breaks down how this “train to nowhere” has burned through $30+ billion, blown past every deadline, and continues to siphon tax dollars under the guise of climate change, traffic relief, and helping the Central Valley — despite audits, delays, and zero real progress.
🚨 Trump and the feds are now looking to pull $4 billion in funding, and for good reason. Is this just another California dream gone off the rails? Or was it always a mythical scam from the beginning?
📉 Share your thoughts in the comments: Should we pull the plug on the bullet train? Or double down?
#CaliforniaHighSpeedRail #WastedMoney #CaliforniaPolitics #GavinNewsom #Trump #CentralValley #Boondoggle #TaxpayerRipoff #RailFail #InfrastructureScam
Are you a Californian who feels isolated and alone in your political views in a deep blue state? Feel like you can’t talk about insane taxes, an overbearing government, and radical social experiments without getting a side eye? Then join us on the California Underground Podcast to hear from people just like you.
*The California Underground Podcast is dedicated to discussing California politics from a place of sanity and rationality.*
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About The Author
The biggest grift in California…nah, the democrat social engineering is the biggest grift in history.
Newsom turn off our water and gas is the next disaster
Newsom and his clowns have been gaslighting Californians for decades..
Someone made bank! Who!😮
I wish it could’ve happened but the main sign it was a scam was the unwillingness to adopt maglev and accept help from Japan. The other issues were the labor training programs, inadequate energy production and incentive, and ever-increasing environmental impact studies. They absolutely laundered money through this project.
Modesto to Bakersfield… dumbest thing ever, and nobody in the San joaquin Valley wants it..
I voted No on the original bond measure and proposed plan, simply based upon what a plane ticket costs and a 10-15 mile Hwy 101 (now freeway) widening that started in the early 70s and still not completed to this day
It's all driven by unions! Unions have an iron grip on every form of California politics
CAHSR is a scam. bureaucrats and unions want to keep the "gravy train" going. politicians don't want to admit that they were wrong. comparing the HSR project to roads is a false comparison because roads are real and provide tangible payback within a reasonable amount of time.. the HSR is a fantasy that will never be completed, let alone deliver on the wildly optimistic promises. at this point, it's a classic example of throwing good money after bad.
CAHSR is not a disaster. Large numbers of unionized civil servants and unionized construction workers are now driving Tesla's and have well-funded pensions. The project goals have therefore been met.
Who wants to guess that the engineers found out they can't tunnel through the mountains. Just a huge waste of money and effort and land taken for this mess.
This high ranking demon we call the governor, is shooting to become the antichrist. He's a bad seed trying to bloom!
I remember voting for this high speed rail. That was nearly 18 years ago and had I known it wasn't going where they said, that it would take 2 decades, and the insane cost, I don't think anyone would have voted for it. NOTHING in Bakersfield or Modesto. Horrific waste of our tax money.
Yes "somebody" made money off of this project, "kick back"😑🫤🤔🤔😮💨
"Almost there, almost done PLANNING", my foot, after 18years??!! Nothing to show for??!! MY hard working money has gone to waste!!! Newsom is incompetent!!!
High Speed Fail.
During my business career I traveled extensively in both the U.S. and Europe, so I think I can offer a different insight. The U.S. is not a rail centric country. Everyone likes to compare us to Europe's rail system, but the geographical differences are many. With the exception of the Northeast, we have big cities separated by large swaths of uninhabited land. Europe is population is more compact by comparison The U.S. is an air travel centric country. We simply fly over empty land and get to our destination. But our politicians want so much to have Europe's HSR system.
With that said the California High Speed Rail (HSR) program was misguided from its inception, IMO. You were supposed to be able to take a train from SF to LA in 2 hr. 40 min. But first you have to get to the train station. A SoCal population of approximately 20M will have only one train station served by HSR and a NorCal population of approximately 14M would have only one station served by (HSR).
So let's say you want to take HSr and live in Morgan Hill, CA and you want to go to Mission Viejo, CA. You first have to get to the train station. From Morgan Hill to SF is 68 miles. Depending on your mode of travel you can figure about 1.5 -2 hours. Then when you arrive at the SoCal train station in LA you need to get to Mission Viejo figure about the same transit time 1.5 – 2 hrs. So now the 2 hr 40 minute HSR trip goes to 5 hr. 40 min.
Now if you look at the air option…NorCal is served by 4 airports (SFO, OAK, SJC & STS) while SoCal is served by 5 airports (LAX, LGB, SNA, BUR & ONT). The flight time is about 1.5 hrs. Then add the 30 min drive from MV to Orange County airport and 40 minutes from San Jose airport to Morgan Hill. Total time 2hr 40 min. You would have to factory getting the airport an hour ahead of time for security so you would add another hour for a total time of 3hr 40 min.
So from how I see it, the HSR never gave any real advantage over air travel. It was a glamour project for politicians at the expense of our pocket books and as the title of this video, it's a disaster. Shut it down.
Merced to Bakersfield….. its worthless
Can't we just admit that ALL progressive "projects" are just mechanisms to launder tax billions?
The consultants and the author of this bill are the ones who made a lot of money through tax payer funding. They knew what they were doing. But they didn’t know they would be audited and investigated
I have a grand idea on how to finish this Railway project find out all those who are registered Democrats throughout that state make them pay the special Railway fund of $10,000 and at the same time too those who are registered Republicans will get 3500 back from all the misery that this Governor has been implementing of this high-speed choo choo to nowhere !!