What California got wrong and Florida got right with high-speed rail

Could high-speed rail be on its way to the West? California is working on it, but it's become more expensive, expansive and time-consuming than when the project was first approved in 2008. 

In Japan, high-speed rail connects two of the country’s largest cities, Tokyo and Osaka, roughly 250 miles apart. Typically, that’s about a six-hour drive, the same amount of time it takes to travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco, Gitanjali Poonia reported. 

While Japanese residents have the option to cut the travel time in half by hopping on a train that runs nearly 200 miles per hour, Californians are stuck navigating the web of traffic and freeways, she writes. 

Originally California planned on finishing a high-speed railway by 2020 using $33 billion in funding. Five years later, the cost has ballooned to $135 billion for a project that still hasn't been finished. 

“It’s the worst managed project I think I’ve ever seen,” President Donald Trump said last week. “I built for a living and I built on time — on budget. ... It’s impossible that something could cost that much.”

On the opposite coast, in Florida, these issues of political dysfunction were largely avoided thanks to private investment.