SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – “It’s like that movie ‘Groundhog Day’. The alarm goes off. The guy on the radio says there’s a new plan to fund high- speed rail in California. Then it all falls apart,” said KCBS Radio anchor Steve Scott earlier this month.
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This week presented yet another hurdle for proponents of the currently-underway high-speed rail project in the state, with President Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom again fighting through social media posts, press releases and court filings.
In a Wednesday social media post, the president said that he was “thrilled to announce that I have officially freed you from funding California’s disastrously overpriced, “HIGH SPEED TRAIN TO NOWHERE.”
Trump went on to say that: “This boondoggle, led by the incompetent Governor of California, Gavin Newscum, has cost Taxpayers Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we have received NOTHING in return except Cost Overruns. The Railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will. This project was Severely Overpriced, Overregulated, and NEVER DELIVERED.”
According to the California High Speed Rail Authority, there’s been talk about constructing high speed rail in the state since at least 1980. However, Phase 1 of the actual plan – expected to run from San Francisco to the Los Angeles basin – has not been completed yet.
“People in California not too happy so far with the fact that it hasn’t really gotten off the ground to much of an extent,” political insider Phil Matier told KCBS Radio in early July, shortly after authority CEO Ian Choudri said he hoped to get private investor funding for the project. “They’re still working on that test line between Merced and Bakersfield and the costs are already at $35 billion estimated to complete that alone and that was their original price for the entire Los Angeles to San Francisco line.”
Trump delivered yet another blow to the plans in his Wednesday post.
“Thanks to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, not a SINGLE penny in Federal Dollars will go towards this Newscum SCAM ever again,” he said. “This was an ill-conceived and unnecessary project, and a total waste of Taxpayer money – But no more!”
In response, Newsom announced Thursday that the High Speed Rail Authority is suing the Trump administration over what his office called the “politically-motivated termination of $4 billion in federal grants to the project.”
This lawsuit alleges that the terminations are “petty, political retribution,” that are not backed up by facts. Newsom’s office said that the action comes as the project enters its “track laying phase,” and as it is actively being built along 171 miles.
“In reality, this is just a heartless attack on the Central Valley that will put real jobs and livelihoods on the line,” said the governor. “We’re suing to stop Trump from derailing America’s only high-speed rail actively under construction.”
Additionally, Newsom’s office noted that there has been “significant progress” on the project over the last year, including environmental reviews, electrification work, construction and more. It said passenger service is expected within the next eight years.
“We are just going to keep hearing about it because… I’m sorry to say that, politically speaking, high-speed rail has become that one of those limbo situations where it’s… a big work project in the Central Valley,” said Matier. “That's what it really is at this point It employs some 15,000 people and they’re badly needed jobs.”
Without support from the federal government, California could pursue private funding more aggressively. However, Matier noted that state funding for public transit in California is already stressed.
“There’s already a public private partnership for a high-speed rail between Las Vegas and the metro area of Los Angeles, and that… I think, is going to open up,” Matier said, before Trump made his announcement this week. “You know, we’ll see how that flies. And maybe if that flies, they’ll get investors for the rest.”
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