It's not every day you see Ron DeSantis and Elon Musk on the same side of anything, but California's high-speed rail project has managed to unite them in mutual disbelief.

Florida's governor took to X on Wednesday to share a Wall Street Journal report estimating the long-delayed rail system could ultimately cost as much as $231 billion, with full operations not expected until 2040. "That this could reach nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars is mind blowing…" DeSantis wrote.

Musk, never one to miss a chance to pile on, replied with a simple but devastating verdict: "It's just a big scam."

This isn't the first time the Tesla Inc. (TSLA) CEO has taken a swing at the project. He's previously claimed his tunneling startup, The Boring Co., could "build a Hyperloop tunnel from downtown SF to downtown LA for <5%" of the project's cost. That's a bold claim, but when the alternative is a quarter-trillion-dollar price tag, it starts to sound almost reasonable.

The project, which would stretch 494 miles from San Francisco to Anaheim in its first phase, has been a punching bag for critics for years. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, under President Donald Trump, has called it a "train to nowhere." The administration recently redirected more than $2 billion in project funds toward upgrading Amtrak's rail system, a move that effectively pulls the rug out from under California's plans.

Even within California, the project's future looks shaky. Xavier Becerra, who won the Democratic primary to replace term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom in November's election, has said he would scrap the project in its current form. "We need high-speed rail in California," he said, walking a careful line between supporting the concept and rejecting the current execution.

For now, the project limps along, with Newsom claiming 463 miles of track are ready for construction. But with a price tag that keeps climbing and critics on both sides of the aisle calling it a boondoggle, the "train to nowhere" might end up being exactly that.