Sen. Wiener Claims Poll Shows Majority of Californians Continue to Support High-Speed Rail (snort)

Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) Thursday responded to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s announcement that the Trump Administration will conduct a compliance review of California’s High-Speed Rail project.

Judging by social media, most Californians are happy that no more taxpayer funds will be spent on the train-to-nowhere project, now 16-years along with no train and no track and billions spent (on what?). Remember, California’s High Speed Rail project was estimated to cost $33 billion in 2008 with a San Francisco to Los Angeles line to open by 2028. The rail project has since ballooned to over $130 billion, with only an estimated partial completion somewhere in the late 2030’s. CHRSA actually confirmed that the system still needed $100 billion if it would ever link up San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Sen. Wiener characterizes the Trump administration announcement as “a step towards withholding its federal funding and killing the project,” and is clearly having a hissy fit.

This is Sen. Wiener’s response:

“Fresh off his attack on New York City’s successful congestion pricing program — which is reducing traffic congestion, increasing foot traffic, and funding public transportation — Donald Trump is now trying to destroy California’s High-Speed Rail project, which is under construction and moving forward. Trump is determined to increase traffic delays, make transportation more expensive, make our air dirtier, and fuel climate change.”

Trump didn’t need to lift a finger to “destroy” California’s High-Speed Rail project – California politicians did that all by themselves by gross mismanagement.

“This is also a massive government handout by Trump to his Co-President Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, who is afraid that modern public transportation will undermine his business interests — including Tesla and his scam ‘Boring Company.’” Wiener continued.

“High-Speed Rail — or as I call it, a modern, integrated rail system for California — is essential for the future of our state. It will prevent traffic from clogging our roads, support massive growth in our economy, slash air pollution, and restore California’s status as a leader on sustainable transportation. It’s an embarrassment that California does not have a modern statewide rail system — Trump wants to prolong that embarrassment instead of doing something to help.

“High-Speed Rail is an incredibly transparent project that has nothing to hide. The project has an independent inspector general established by the legislature and is subject to ongoing, broad-based public scrutiny.”

“California is committed to High-Speed Rail. The project is happening. Sabotage from federal actors should never impede our responsibility to deliver affordable transportation for Californians. To that end, I’m authoring legislation this year to speed up the permitting and construction process for High-Speed Rail and other transportation projects to make affordable, great public transportation a reality in California.”

Sounds like someone is running for re-election. The only people “committed” to High-Speed Rail are Democrat politicians and those receiving paychecks from the High Speed Rail Authority.

A little further down, Sen. Wiener said, “Recent polling found that the majority of Californians continue to support High-Speed Rail,” and he linked to a recent Emerson College/Nexstar Media poll, which was a long list of questions including:

“In a hypothetical Primary for Governor in 2026, which of the following candidates would you support at this time?” The poll listed all of the announced candidates.

269 respondents named Kamala Harris. 77 were undecided. 44 named Katie Porter.

Another question was:

“What do you think is the most important issue facing California?”

The poll offered:

293 said “economy, jobs, inflation, taxes.” The next closest answer was “housing affordability” at 216. “Abortion access” and “foreign policy” were the least important to those polled.

The High Speed Rail question was quite open-ended; instead of asking specific questions about the mammoth project, the poll oddly used “Based on what you have seen, read, or heard” as a basis.

The choices only offered “Good use” or “Bad Use”:

“Based on what you have seen, read, or heard, do you think California’s high speed rail project between Los Angeles and San Francisco is a good use of state funds or bad use of funds?”

543 said good use. 457 said bad use.

So somehow Californians polled went from being most concerned about the economy, jobs, inflation and taxes to being supportive of High Speed Rail?

The question was asked with no context. I support the idea of flying cars, but if the costs of the research and development are included in the question, I likely will change my mind.

“High Speed Rail” should have been a choice in the “What do you think is the most important issue facing California?” and likely would have tied with “abortion access” and and “foreign policy” – the least important issues.

Limiting California voters to “Good use” or “Bad use” of funds is about as honest as asking “When did you stop beating your wife?”

The Emerson College Polling California survey was conducted February 10-11, 2025, with a sample of 1,000 California registered voters: 469 Democrats, 239 Republicans and 292 Independents/other voters.

Felling manipulated yet?

High Speed Rail disputed this X post, but it made me laugh – and shake my head. Perhaps the best response was, “Probably real cost around $1 million and $10.999 billion defrauded in government contracts.”