High Speed Train -- Actually Only the Track -- to Nowhere -- Not a Bakken Story

Don't worry; we will get back to the Bakken momentarily.

This will eventually be filed under "I Can't Make This Stuff Up."

Despite the significant debt we already have, California plans to build a high speed rail but will not provide any trains or maintenance facilities for the track segment ... because ... drum roll.... it won't connect to any existing track. It will not only "go nowhere," it won't "start anywhere."

It will literally be a bridge with no highways leading to it.

But California a) needs the jobs; and, b) deadline for grabbing Federal money is slowly approaching.

The French and Chinese continue to "beat the pants off the US" when it comes to high speed rail; a Chinese passenger train just hit a new record, 300 mph. This train will run between Shanghai and Beijing, certainly not a train that goes nowhere.

But the US is great at sending seven astronauts into space every seven months (when the weather cooperates).

Meanwhile, the President's debt commission will vote today on a debt reduction program which includes cutting subsidies to farmers.

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CNBC talked about this story on December 28, 2010.