I just found it funny as a number because 35 bil is such a ridiculous amount for a 171 mile train.
The American Society of Civil Engineers annual report card reports that over 43% of our existing road system is in either poor or mediocre condition as of 2021, and an over $435 billion backlog for repairing existing roads and $125 billion for bridge repairs.[0] Worse yet, as existing infrastructure reaches its planned lifespans, we have to dump more money into repairing, extending, and replacing it.
Adding more cars only makes the existing challenges worse, and accelerates infrastructure aging due to increased wear-and-tear. Those added cars also means increased congestion, and we have decades of solid empirical evidence to show that increasing capacity through road widening only creates induced demand. You literally cannot build your way out of congestion.
The mess that defines California's HSR project is an international embarrassment. We need to fix the legal and institutional roadblocks that have helped its costs balloon and schedule disintegrate, because the alternatives are terrible.
0. https://infrastructurereportcard.org/cat-item/roads-infrastr...