[stars & stripes forever]

How many desalination plants and water storage facilities could have been built for the cost of California’s bullet train?

[Olog-hai]

Well, the Carlsbad desalination plant is costing $1 billion already to set up, so that would make ten such plants by California’s spending measure. And the left hates desalination plants, as that LA Times link makes plain.

[BobL]

“How many desalination plants and water storage facilities could have been built for the cost of California’s bullet train?”

...or how many new lanes can be added to I-5, which parallels the route?

I’ll answer: For the total cost of the route, two lanes could be added to I-5 (presently only 2 lanes each way now, for the entire Central Valley run), along with adding extra lanes at each end on I-5 in LA, and I-580 near SF (where it then meets up with other freeways), for about $5 Billion dollars...roughly 5 or 6 percent of the cost of the train.

From there, maybe make one of the new lanes a bus-only lane, and let Megabus and others do their thing for next to NO COST for passengers.