Trump administration moves to pull funding for California bullet train

[Judi Lynn]

U.S. NEWS

"This is California’s money, and we are going to fight for it," said Gov. Gavin Newsom.


Feb. 19, 2019, 9:13 PM CST
By Dennis Romero

Amid a social media feud between President Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the federal government announced its intention Tuesday to cancel nearly $1 billion in pending funding for the state's long-planned, high-speed train.

In a letter Tuesday to California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Brian P. Kelly, the U.S. Department of Transportation outlined the government's reasons for pulling funding. The state has not come up with its own promised funding, will miss a 2022 completion target and has recently reconfigured the project outside the bounds of a federal pact for funding, railroad chief Ronald L. Batory wrote.

The federal department will "de-obligate" $928,620,000 in promised cash, but California will be given a chance to argue its case, Batory said in the letter. He also said the Trump administration is "exploring all available legal options" to recover $2.5 billion in past federal grants for the project.

Newsom last week announced plans to scale back the $77 billion project. Rather than taking travelers between Los Angeles and San Francisco as originally envisioned, the train will now seek to bridge the Central Valley cities of Bakersfield and Merced.

More:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-administration-moves-pull-funding-california-bullet-train-n973396

[mr_lebowski]

1. 77 BILLION? Are you KIDDING ME? How can 300 miles of railway cost anywhere NEAR

$77,000,000,000?!?

How can that even be?!?

And a high speed line that just connects Merced to Bakersfield is freaking USELESS ... you know who travels that route? TRUCKS. And that's mostly it. PEOPLE don't travel from Merced to Bakersfield FFS.

You gotta either the connect the Bay Area proper to the LA valley, or don't even bother. It can start in Tracy or thereabouts, but Merced? C'mon. And it's GOT to get further South than the Grapevine.

[TJKay]

2. I purchase freight rail service from all the large US railroads for my company....

When big money questions such as this come up, the first question is so easy: What does the contract say?

And if the contract says CA has to pay back money if projects are cancelled, and they don't want to do it, then you negotiate.

I don't blame Newsome acting on this, even though I think we need to get started on HSR. This project was extremely out of contro and had little hope for getting it back on track ( pun intended). Newsome was wise to bite the bullet and take a bath on it and move on. Wipe the slate clean.