Waste of the Day: U.S. DOT Spends $3 Billion On Private High-Speed Rail
kschneider2991, Wikimedia Commons
Commuters may want high-speed rail but at what price? Apparently $3 billion. That’s what the U.S. Department of Transportation committed this month for Brightline West, a private intercity passenger railroad, to help build a $12 billion high-speed railway between Las Vegas and Southern California, the Washington Post reported.
Another $3 billion will go to California High-Speed Rail Authority to continue construction of a 500-mile train connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The $3 billion for Brightline is “an almost unheard of infusion of federal money for a private project,” the Post reported. The trains would travel 218 miles Las Vegas and suburban Los Angeles at 186 mph by 2028.
