RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. — Brightline West aims to connect Las Vegas and Southern California with high-speed rail.

But the planned terminal is not in Los Angeles, where you might expect, but 40 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

Why California’s high speed rail was always going to blow out

99.5 percent of megaprojects are either over time, over budget or have lower benefits than expected. What’s going wrong? Today, we look at case studies from California’s high speed rail project to the Sydney Opera House to consider the do’s and don’ts of ambitious projects. Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner’s book on megaprojects is How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors that Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between. Related episo

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