How to Complete California's Bullet Train in Two Years

What a disaster! What an embarrassment! California’s reputation as the wave of the future has been besmirched. How can this be happening to us? My first reaction is that a lot of graft and corruption must have taken place between 2008 and 2026 to not even have completed 119 miles through the level ground of the San Joaquin Valley.

Yes, they started with no detailed plan. They had to wait until property prices went sky high before buying the right-of-way. There were lawsuits and environmental regulations (and why shouldn’t there be?). California’s share of the funding relied on “cap and trade revenue” which only works when industry violates envirnonmental guidelines. The Feds, especially, Trump have been slow or absent when it was time to give our state its federal share of funding. They act like it’s their money.

The project made heavy use of consultants. This is where I would concentrate the search for graft and corruption. How many of these so-called consultants have ever built a bullet train before? Why were they hired? Were they someone’s cousin or brother-in-law? How big were their expense accounts?

Would you be surprised to learn that companies from China have already participated in at least four rail projects in the U.S.? So why not California?

The Chinese company at issue is the CRRC (China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation) which is listed as a major Chinese state-owned enterprise. Their involvement includes:

Boston (MBTA Red and Orange Lines) - CRRC won a contract for $567 million to build a plant where they manufactured 284 railroad cars.

Chicago - CRRC won a $1.3 billion contract for hundreds of railroad cars.

Philadelphia - CRRC underbid competitors significantly to build railroad cars.

Los Angeles - CRRC won a contract to build cars used on the Red and Purple lines.

These contracts are all for railroad car building, but the point is that a Chinese company was accepted to enter into contracts to participate in the railroad industry. There is no reason why there should be any difference building railroad car or laying track, building bridges and/or tunnels.

In China the average time it takes to complete a 500 mile train project from start to finish is 3-5 years. Since much of the preparatory work in California has already been done, it is conceivable that Chinese workers could complete the remaining 375 miles, while the existing workers finish the 119 miles they have already started.

Perhaps the Chinese workers could complete their work in less that two years and then they could extend the line to Sacramento and San Diego. Hell, why not keep going to the northern and southern borders of the state where it could link up to proposed Mexican bullet trains in the south and Pacific Northwest bullet trains in the north. You know it’s just a matter of time until there is a bullet train or Maglev train from Vancouver, British Columbia to Mexico City. Why not do it now when it’s cheaper to build than it will be in 10 or 20 years?

Donald Trump, our erstwhile, negative president, has had only good things to say about China and its president, Xi Jinping. He just returned from a visit to China, and seemed happy with the results, even if no one else was. Now, he is planning a longer trip to China in the near future.

What better way to cement a relationship with China than to engage in a joint project. Since it would be in California, Trump probably wouldn’t care less. It might be the start of a beautiful relationship with China.

But would this mean a loss of American jobs? Well yes, if the train could be completed by 2028 or 2029, instead of 2035 or later. Based on the work performance of the current crew, I would say they should all be fired, not extended in their faux jobs. But let them continue working on the central valley leg of the route. That would be doing them a favor.

Back in China, we would like to hire railroad workers who have built the fabled lines over the Himalaya Mountains, through swamps and deserts, despite the sandstorms. The Chinese have turned out to be the most accomplished railroad workers in the world.

America doesn’t have to be the best at everything. Let’s admire the skill and hard work of the Chinese. Seriously, if we want high-speed trains covering the length and breath of this country, we are going to need a little help from our friends in China, starting with the California Bullet Train. Not only that, but joint work in space beckons. It’s time to make friends.

In 1862, the U.S. Congress authorized a transcontinental railroad that would link the east and west coasts. One group of workers set out from Omaha, Nebraska, and the other started from Sacramento, California. It took them seven years before they met and completed the job at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869.

The California crew, comprised of 90 percent Chinese workers, was given backbreaking work to do. They had to lay tracks through the Sierra Nevada mountains and across the deserts of Nevada, while the eastern crew had flat prairies to deal with for most of their way.

After they met in Utah, a rider could go from New York City, Chicago or Washington D.C. to San Francisco completely by train. It was a step into the future.

In the western branch of the effort, up to 15,000 Chinese laborers carried on their hard work for seven years . Their task involved the creation of about 700 miles of railroad tracks stretching from Sacramento, California, to Promontory, Utah. The laborers had to perform nearly impossible physical tasks such as carrying steel rails, setting wooden ties, and hammering them together with heavy spikes.

The Chinese workers, many of whom were immigrants, suffered under much worse conditions than did the white workers. The company would not provide them with meals as they did for everyone else. The Chinese men had to buy their food from merchants along the way. They were underpaid to begin with and had inferior health care when they were injured. More than a thousand Chinese workers died in the construction process.

One Hundred and sixty-four years ago, Chinese workers built our most important railroad of the day. Yet, they were treated with racism, 2nd class citizenship and were discarded after the job was done.

Today, those who agree to help complete the California Bullet Train would be treated as honored guests who were doing us a great favor. Our great train can be built quickly but only if we treat workers from all countries with dignity and respect.

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