Citing cost overruns, the federal government will no longer provide funding for California’s planned Los Angeles-to-San Francisco high-speed rail project, according to a news report from Reuters. President Donald Trump made the comment to reporters yesterday during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
In February, the Federal Railroad Administration announced it was conducting a review of the California high-speed rail project, which is years behind schedule and well over budget. Voters approved $10 billion for the project in 2008 and the Biden Administration committed about $4 billion. The full project was initially estimated to cost about $40 billion but has now soared to $89 billion to $128 billion.
According to the Reuters report, a spokesman for California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday: “With 50 major structures built, walking away now as we enter the track-laying phase would be reckless.”
There is active civil construction under way along 119 miles in the Central Valley and pre-construction activities are under way on the extensions to Merced and Bakersfield, the California High-Speed Rail Authority reported yesterday, according to Reuters.
This project was supposed to be fully operational by now. They are now projecting 2033. It is CURRENTLY $48 Billion over budget, more than triple the original projection. Boondoggle. Brightline West will be running sooner and it will be at a much lower cost per mile and will be PROFITABLE. Everything CalHSR isn’t.
If this is so important for California, then let California pay for it.
Correction: $88 Billion dollar over budget.
The Federal Gvmt has no business in HSR. if California, Texas or anywhere else wants it then they should build it. Maybe if they get rid of the management and crooks that have their hands in the cookie jar, Ca. might be able to afford to complete it
Gerald: how much less would it cost to fund conventional rail in this corridor? Demonstrate success with conventional rail then move to somethng better. To me, this is similar to the Concord. It costs a lot was pretty neat to look at, but ultimately not practical. And, if the Fed tax money would have been spent on bolstering AMTRAK, how much further along would the nation have become?
Without HSR, how are California criminals supposed to expand their range of available victims? Look at the success of the Washington D.C. Metrorail at bringing criminals from Maryland and D.C. into Northern Virginia, and enabling easy escapes after committing their crimes. One such “Commuter Criminal” forever changed the life of a businesswoman who was terrorized in her Tysons Corner hotel room before he successfully escaped. However, thanks to security cameras, he was identified and eventually arrested in Prince Georges County, Maryland.
It’s all a personal vendetta of Donny “two dolls” Trump against Gavin Newsom. $4 billion dollar Federal investment that’s nothing compared to the way the Navy is dumping $73 million dollar fighters over the side (2) another shot down by mistake. $800 billion dollar Defense Dept budget overseen by a drunk!
Given proper management and design, I had expected the valley segment would be fully operational by now. Tracks laid, stations built, equipment on hand, schedules complete and passengers riding. How many more years for just this segment? And if they have so many problems with a nice level valley, what will the mountains bring?
Well, the spokesman for California Gov, Gavin Newsom is either lying, or extraordinarily demented, or both. They aren’t in the track-laying stage, except in the less important Merced to Bakersfield segment. They haven’t even begun preliminary construction phases on the crucial segments Bakersfield-Burbank-Los Angeles or Merced to San Jose.
So track-laying on those segments (the most important segments) is, pick a number, fifteen years in the future. Or maybe never.
People reading these pages have opinions different from mine on a number of issues, and I respect that. When it comes to CalHSR, as one issue, I can’t see how anyone can defend it.
Perhaps you can’t see how anyone can defend it because you do not live here and have to deal with the massive traffic issues that happen up and down the state…everywhere including the Central Valley. A majority of Californians still support the project, because unlike some people we can see the beneifts it will provide when completed.
However, I do not necessarily agree with how the entire thing is planned out. There’s absolutely no reason you can’t have HSR with 3/4% grades. Those super long tunnels they’re talking about are a significant waste of time and money, as are a lot of the elevated portions of the route. Would have been less expensive and faster to build road over and/or undercrossing while keeping the HSR route on level ground, except where it would need to cross freight rail lines or bisecting certain cities downtowns.
As for funding, just like with Amtrak, the amount from the Federal government is so small as to be laughable. Anyone would tell you that cutting out something that is 0.1-0.5% of an annual budget is pointless when you have larger wastes(DoD, which itself wastes over 20% of it budget) that could be slashed(unless we want to become a 3rd/4th world country).
The bigger problem is no one has the right vision for this state, without thinking they need to raise taxes(as opposed to reducing certain them and making other changes). This isn’t a Demo or Rep issue either, it’s just a vision issue and this isn’t the place to talk about it.