Fed claims that there is no “viable plan” for the project to work.
The promised high -speed train project of California, approved for the first time in 2008, has reached many road blockages in its development process and can now be looking at the end of the road. The Trump Administration Department of Transportation has published a report this week that does not paint a beautiful project image, and Sean Duffy, responsible for Dot, has given California for just over a month to respond to worries or face $ 4 billion in government funding, terminated, rescinded, According to Reuters.
The threat to cut California follows a 315 -page report published by the Federal Railway Administration, which claims that California has lost several deadlines related to the high -speed railway and has not identified how she will achieve $ 7 billion in funding to build a railway segment between Merced and Bakersfield, California, which he Need to be assured in the coming summer So that the project is moving forward. The report concludes, in a rather Trump language, that California “connected the taxpayer to its $ 4 billion investment, without any viable plan to deliver even this partial segment in time.”
The Department of Transportation gave California until mid -July to respond to the report, threatening to terminate federal contracts if it does not sufficiently address the concerns raised in the report. The California High Speed Railway Authority called the “wrong” report, According to a report from Los Angeles TimesAnd he said he will soon issue a formal answer. “We are firmly committed to completing the first real -speed real rail system in the country that connects the main population centers in the state,” said a spokesman for the agency.
Trump has been in the ass of California on the railway project basically since he returned to the post. Its administration launched a review yet to be completed From a $ 3.1 billion federal grant to help fund construction in February and last month he distinguished the project during a joint appearance with Prime Minister Mark Carney in Canada, saying: “This train is the worst cost I’ve ever seen” and “this government will not pay.”
Trump’s scrutiny and the company is not exactly a surprise for officials involved in high -speed railway construction, such as Officials pointed out early this year that there may be federal government funding deficits on the horizon. And, although many people are frustrated by the time that the California railway project has taken and the amount it costs, the federal government is not really in the hook. By the TimesCalifornia has paid 82% of the project, based on federal aid for only 18% of funding.
Although California’s high -speed railway has had a lot of problems, especially inflicted by politics, the “Train to Newhere” label that is often struck with no longer matches the image on the ground. More than 119 miles have been established between Merced and Bakersfield, and the project is Close enough to complete that the abandonment at this time would be more wasted than to finish it, especially with the communities along the route Waiting for an economic boom potential Once in operation. But good luck saying -Trump (and Elon Musk who has opposed it from the beginning).
