Lawsuits were filed by counties, water agencies, farm bureaus and cities, alleging that the project had not fairly estimated the impacts to their communities. Although the litigation did not stop the project, it caused delays and sharply drove up costs. In 2010, the rail authority estimated it would cost $388 million to conduct environmental reviews along the route from San Francisco to Los Angeles. By last year, that cost had jumped to more than $1 billion.

Any project larger than a single-family home addition in this country is going to get taken to court. The rail authority was unaware of this? And their “Remain calm. All is well” attitude about funding problems was either dishonest or ignorant.

The rail authority found that nobody could be sure what was under the ground in Fresno, driving up the cost of relocating sewers, water lines, communications cables and electrical conduits by hundreds of millions of dollars. Freight railroads insisted that the rail authority build barriers that would protect passenger trains from derailments on nearby freight tracks, a requirement that drove up costs by hundreds of millions of dollars, as well.

Laurel and Hardy meet Mr. Magoo. This is the “Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight” — outlaws wearing business suits holding up taxpayers for tens of billions of dollars to fund a train that isn’t needed, that no one will use, and that may never be finished.

The hard part is yet to come: tunneling through the mountains in southern and northern California. That’s why you should take that $100 billion price tag with a grain of salt.

Unless, of course, someone mercifully puts a bullet in the head of the bullet train and puts it out of its misery.