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I might be fairly cynical but after recent public infrastructure massive bids and failures it seems obvious this will result in $100B of wealth transfer from the public to the private for 0 miles of rail.

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This doesn't seem like that cynical of a take at all. The US is terrible at infrastructure projects. I feel like you would never go wrong betting against them. Or at least betting that they take 10x the time and cost than predicted.

The initial bill for HSR was one of the first things I remember voting on. If I recall correctly, it was a bond for 8b dollars. I voted against it because I had extreme doubts that would be the end of it.

If it actually cost $8B, I would have supported it.

The Brightline rail in Florida which connects Miami to Orlando began construction in 2014 had its first service in 2018 and full route in 2023. I took it last year, it was just fine. I’ve begun to see that sometimes the private sector can be much, much better at managing these infrastructure projects than the State of California .

There's a strong argument that the money would have been more effective on local mass transit projects since they'd see more immediate use and are easier to complete.

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