California is lining up another massive transportation boondoggle: after years and billions on rail, the state is now pushing a $24 billion “high-speed” tunnel under the 405, promising unreal commute cuts while the same spending patterns and missed deadlines loom large.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome, and California keeps proving the point. After nearly two decades and piles of taxpayer money, the state finally “laid down the first railhead for the project.” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says the latest portion will cost $135 million when finished.
Now Los Angeles officials are pitching a $24 billion underground transit tunnel under the Sepulveda Pass, promising to slice a notorious commute down to under 20 minutes. The sales pitch sounds great on paper, but the state’s track record on big-ticket transport projects is a warning light. Big promises, bigger cost overruns, and timelines that stretch decades are the pattern voters keep getting sold.
Approval and design decisions are already being celebrated, but taxpayers should be skeptical about the math and the motives. Big urban projects attract consultants, contractors, and political winners who benefit long before a shovel breaks ground. Meanwhile drivers and riders still face the daily reality of congestion and delays while politicians chase headline-friendly solutions.
Local boosters say an automated subway will link Ventura to Santa Monica with stops at major boulevards, and they claim an 18-minute trip will replace what many endure as a 90-minute slog. That kind of time savings looks dramatic, but it assumes everything goes perfectly: construction, testing, automation, and operations. Perfection has not been California’s strong suit on these mega-projects.
After many months of discussions, the LA Metro Board has finally approved an underground heavy rail subway to travel the ultra congested Sepulveda corridor where traffic nightmares have long haunted commuters.
It’ll take just 18 minutes to travel the corridor on the train, that’s one hour and 12 minutes less than the typical 90 minutes drivers suffer through the famed pass.
The project will also cost an estimated $24 billion.
The automated subway will snake underneath Van Nuys Boulevard through the pass and all the way to Santa Monica according to Metro’s official website. It will include stops at Ventura, Wilshire, and Santa Monica Boulevards.
Many options were considered, including a monorail high above the freeway.
Elon Musk has been a critic of LA spending billions on building tunnels, offering up his Boring Company as a much cheaper way of digging underground.
Officials are already penciling in a completion date of 2038, a timetable that invites skepticism given similar promises on other projects. No one expects this to finish on time or under budget; the mix of scope creep and bureaucratic delays is practically guaranteed. The state’s long-running high-speed rail program has been under construction in fits and starts for years, proving that large sums do not equal efficient delivery.
This writer has watched one of those rail efforts stretch across three kids’ childhoods, and the patience of taxpayers isn’t infinite. Projects that start with fanfare and end with litigation, delays, and dashed expectations erode public trust. California keeps chasing shiny infrastructure headlines while the fundamentals of cost control and accountability lag behind.
Critics point out alternatives and lower-cost options that were dismissed early in planning, and voices like Elon Musk’s have suggested less expensive tunneling approaches. Those proposals get brushed aside when the political benefit favors bigger, flashier projects. The result is a pipeline of expensive contracts that feed private interests while taxpayers shoulder the long-term tab.
There’s a familiar chorus from Sacramento and City Hall promising rigorous oversight and strict budgets, but promises are cheap in a state with a history of overruns. The political calculus here is obvious: big projects can translate into big campaign donations and media-friendly milestones. Voters deserve projects that deliver value, not grand announcements that create headline-driven spending sprees.
The cynical take is hard to dismiss: another enormous program that will bleed money, miss deadlines, and become the next political millstone. They probably couldn’t have grifted off of this without getting attention, yet attention is exactly what fuels continued spending. When projects become trophy items rather than practical solutions, taxpayers lose.
Republican skeptics will keep pressing for transparency, realistic cost estimates, and smaller, modular investments that improve traffic now instead of chasing decades-long mega-project fantasies. We’re surprised Governor Gavin Newsom would embrace another high-profile effort with such shaky odds of success, but then again, Newsom himself said he’s not the brightest crayon in the box. That kind of candid line might be funny—until taxpayers write the checks.
At the end of the day, politicians can promise 18-minute commutes and shiny tunnels, but voters should ask who pays when the tab balloons. California already has a long history of expensive experiments that underdeliver, and this new tunnel looks like the next chapter in that story. Anyone with a business eye will want accountability before signing off on another multibillion-dollar leap of faith.
