Will high-speed rail ever arrive in the U.S.?

60 Minutes Overtime High-speed rail is commonplace in many other countries. Will it track in the U.S.? .chip { background-image: url('/fly/bundles/cbsnewscore/images/chip-bgd/chip-bgd-60-minutes-overtime.jpg'); } By Jon Wertheim, Jon Wertheim Correspondent, 60 Minutes L. Jon Wertheim is an accomplished journalist and 60 Minutes correspondent. Read Full Bio Jon Wertheim, David M. Levine, Meghan Lisson April 5, 2026 / 7:00 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google With high-speed rail ambitions in California delayed by years and coming in at a higher-than-expected cost, Lou Thompson, who sat on the state's high-speed rail peer review group, said "failure is always an option."He doesn't think failure is what will necessarily happen in California, but earlier ambitions have been scaled back. When California voters approved a bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2008, the estimated price tag was $33 billion, with a target completion date of 2020. Nearly two decades later, the California High-Speed Rail Authority is preparing to lay its first tracks to connect Bakersfield and Merced — a portion of the original route — with a target completion of 2033."When you have a project like this, and when the budget no longer permits you to finish it the way you wanted to, you start cutting off your arms and legs," Thompson said. What happened to California's plansRep. Vince Fong, a Republican representing California's Central Valley, sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He says that when California voters first approved high-speed rail, the promise and price tag were more of a marketing campaign than a realistic projection."We're now in 2026. There are no trains. There's no track laid," he said. "It was a complete bait and switch."It became clear after voters approved the plan in 2008 that the specifics hadn't been worked out, Fong said. California Secretary of Transportation Toks Omishakin, who's relatively new to the job...