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"The largest share of the $8 billion in grants awarded in January went to California, which got $2.3 billion for a 220-mph route between Los Angeles and San Francisco." Whether the government is putting its eggs in the best high speed rail basket, however it is defined, is debatable, as shown in an article that appeared recently in the LA Times. "LOS ANGELES - an academic study has found that ridership forecasts for the California high-speed rail project is flawed and needs further work. The analysis released Thursday by the University of California; Berkeley challenges the optimistic projections that by 2035, 41 million passengers could ride the trains every year. UC Berkley transportation experts said certain methodology used in the forecasts are unreliable, making it impossible to predict whether the 800-mile system would be profitable. Ridership predictions are critical to the $42-billion project because they form the basis for route selection, private investment and public funding decisions. The CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority is standing by the forecasts, calling them a "sound tool" for planning the system." Unfortunately, as pointed out by the Government Accountability Office in its report on high speed rail projects, the proponents tend to overstate the number of riders and revenues that will be generated by their project whilst understating the costs.  Moreover, the estimates tend to be moving targets.  For example, proponents of the California high speed rail project claimed that a passenger would be able to travel from LA to San Francisco for $55.  This estimate was subsequently raised to $115.  In any case, these projects will never pay for their capital costs and, in most instances it is unlikely that they will be able to covering their operating costs without some fancy accounting.  Thus, the taxpayers will be on the hook for the deficits generated by the projects.
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