If California Can’t Make High Speed Rail Work, Can Anyone?

For more than a decade, California has been trying to develop a 520-mile network of trains speeding as fast as 220 mph, much as they do in parts of Europe and Asia. Investing in high-speed rail in the U.S. is also a key plank of congressional Democrats’ “ Green New Deal” to mitigate climate change. But California’s bullet train project is in trouble, plagued by cost overruns, political controversy, poor decision-making, and now questions about the scope of the project and a fight over funding with President Trump. Its fate shows just how challenging the goal remains of replacing emissions-spewing vehicles on congested highways with fast, clean travel by rail.

Democrats led by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts offered a nonbinding resolution on Feb. 7 to create the Green New Deal, which includes investing in high-speed rail to help reduce greenhouse gases.