If there’s any one thing that could sum up the failure of California’s progressive leadership under Gov. Gavin Newsom and the far-left Democrat dominated legislature, it’s the high-speed train project. Currently, after billions in cost overruns and years of delay, it goes exactly nowhere, and even if it were ever completed, it wouldn’t even connect major cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has seen enough, and on Wednesday, he released a 300-page “Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Compliance Review Report” that essentially indicated that the debacle had “no viable path forward” and that federal funds will be yanked unless officials can come up with some serious answers within 37 days.
In a statement just released, the @USDOT says federal grants for the project could be terminated in 37 days after the CA High Speed Rail Authority responds to the report.
In the statement, the Transportation Department summed up the staggering examples of incompetence and mismanagement:
The detailed report, which is over 300 pages, contains 9 key findings including missed deadlines, budget shortfalls, and overrepresentation of projected ridership. The two grants total roughly $4 billion in taxpayer money. As the letter notes, CHSRA has up to 37 days to respond, after which the grants could be terminated.
In a letter to CHSRA’s CEO, Ian Choudri, the FRA noted its report identified a trail of project delays, mismanagement, waste, and skyrocketing costs. The project has received approximately $6.9 billion in federal dollars in roughly fifteen years but has not laid a single high-speed track. Even with continued federal support, the project is far short of the funding needed to finish just a fraction of the track.
Previously: California’s High-Speed Rail Project Says ‘Hold My Beer,’ Manages to Get Horribly, Comically Worse
California’s $113 billion Bullet Train to Nowhere
Duffy said President Trump wants “great, big, beautiful things again,” not epic failures that embarrass America:
He also issued a warning to CHSRA: “If they can’t deliver on their end of the deal, it could soon be time for these funds to flow to other projects that can achieve President Trump’s vision of building great, big, beautiful things again. Our country deserves high-speed rail that makes us proud – not boondoggle trains to nowhere.”
Timeline:
The investigation into the CHSRA’s high-speed rail project began in February, when Secretary Duffy announced that USDOT would be launching a review of two specific grants: a $929 million Cooperative Agreement from 2010 and a $3.07 billion Cooperative Agreement from last year.
The high-speed rail project is progressivism on steroids, and a symbol of everything you get when people vote these charlatans into office. If California Democrats refuse to fix things themselves, maybe the Trump administration can at least do some of it for them.
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