As a reminder, the Japanese ministers who set up the bullet trains resigned in shame when the project overran, it was described in a similar way and generally derided, and is, of course, now a symbol of the nation and vital to the economy and general life for a lot of people there.

Infrastructure is expensive, hard, and takes a long time. It always will be, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth doing. I'll take what little infrastructure that isn't car-centric we can get.