Congratulations to the California high-speed gravy train on its 10th anniversary.

If you’re one of the lucky winners who cashed in on its high salaries or inflated contracts, congratulations to you, too.

Alas, the good times can’t last much longer. The gravy train is out of gravy.

“We still have no realistic way to pay for the project,” said Assembly Transportation Committee chairman Jim Frazier, D-Discovery Bay.

That’s the sad news from the Draft 2018 Business Plan of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which reveals that the 2016 plan for a first operating segment between San Jose and Wasco was too optimistic.

Now thousands of almond trees in Wasco have no way to get to San Jose. Or back.

There was such happiness in 2008 when the voters approved $9 billion in bonds to start the nation’s first bullet train. It was going to zoom from San Francisco to Los Angeles in two hours and 40 minutes without a tax increase or a public subsidy.

It was going to have oversight and safeguards to make sure it didn’t turn into a stranded, unfinished train to nowhere.

It was going to have private investors and federal funds, and not only that, it was going to travel at 200 mph through the mountains, pulled by a team of unicorns.

Not so fast.

Despite the imaginative work of the rail authority’s Ridership Technical Advisory Panel, “a group of practitioners and academics who are international experts on transportation demand forecasting,” private investors remain unconvinced that the train could operate at a profit.

Federal funding is history, although hope springs eternal. Gov. Jerry Brown invited President Donald Trump to come and see the bullet train, or its birthplace in Fresno, during his recent visit to California. It didn’t happen. Maybe when we’re as poor as North Korea, our governor will be able to get a meeting with the president. It was probably a mistake to close the nuclear power plants.

The Draft 2018 Business Plan tries to position the bullet train as a solution to California’s housing affordability crisis. A one-hour train trip between the Silicon Valley and the Central Valley would “enable people to work at high-tech jobs while having access to more affordable housing options in cities such as Gilroy, Merced and Fresno,” it argues, pointing out that the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is nearly $4,200, while in Kings County it’s currently less than $900.

Related Articles Proposition 15 will hurt homeowners, too

Donald Trump versus the military-industrial complex

Don’t lose sight of the progress made, problems ahead: Walter Williams

Papering over the stream of bad news

Hold off on Ruth Bader Ginsburg replacement: Tom Campbell Think of how much money that will save those Silicon Valley employees, and it’s only going to cost the rest of us $77.3 billion, unless things go badly, in which case it might cost as much as $98 billion.

All the worst-case scenarios have already happened in the construction of the first 119-mile segment, which is now projected to cost $10.6 billion, up from the initial estimate of $6 billion.

Still, the highly-paid executives of the California High-Speed Rail Authority remain optimistic.

“The biggest challenge is not the lack of funding, it’s the lack of imagination,” said Dan Richard, chairman of the board.

Could he seriously be considering a team of unicorns to get the train over the mountains?

Brian P. Kelly, chief executive officer, said a key objective of the rail authority is to “position ourselves to construct additional segments as funding becomes available.”

It’s easy to be patient on an annual salary of $384,984. Nothing rides like a gravy train.

Susan Shelley is an editorial writer and columnist for the Southern California News Group. Reach her at Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on Twitter: @Susan_Shelley.