Two senior congressional Republicans are investigating spiraling costs associated with California’s high speed rail project, Reuters news service reported Wednesday.
According to the Reuters report, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, and Missouri GOP Rep. Sam Graves, chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, have launched partisan inquiries into the Biden Administration’s support of the controversial rail project.
Both GOP leaders on Wednesday asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to disclose documents detailing a decision by the Biden administration to award billions of dollars to the California high speed rail project, which they question whether it will ever be completed, Reuters reported.
They requested documents by June 12 detailing the December decision to award the California high speed rail project another $3.07 billion.
California voters approved $10 billion in 2008 for the project, which aims to move passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles – through San Jose and Gilroy – in under three hours. The GOP awmakers said the project has experienced numerous delays and rising costs, and that the California High Speed Rail Authority has not identified key funding needs. The full project was initially estimated to cost around $40 billion, but that has soared to $128 billion.
In their letter, obtained by Reuters, Graves and Cruz cited a 2023 review by “an independent body” that concluded that the project faced an unfunded gap of $92.6 billion to $103.1 billion between estimated costs and known state and federal funding.
“Despite evidence that continues to show that the California High Speed Rail project has critical issues indicating there is no reasonable path forward for successful completion of the project … the Biden administration continues to allocate substantial federal taxpayer dollars on this highly questionable endeavor,” the lawmakers wrote.
Election year stuff [shrug]
Biden doesn’t know what he’s doing, but he has plenty of company in DC and in other governments, as well as support from so many of today’s rail advocates.
Meanwhile, the California contractor-government syndicate looks much better than the outright clown show in the Northwest, notably in Washington state with a high-speed project run by progressives in government, contractors, and notably, Microsoft that not only lacks details, and not only reintroduces maglev rather than high-speed rail as a candidate system type, but also takes “Hyperloop” seriously as a third candidate. Talk about Looney Tunes and silly types all the way through the federal government in DC being taken for a ride.
It diverts resources from upgrading existing service to higher performance, too.
Ted Cruz saying anything is a gift to these HSR grifters. Nothing will crystalize support here in the land of the progressive for even the inanest projects than Ted Cruz opening his mouth.
It adds to those feelings on which the lefties operate in place of reasoning.
It’s not as if this disastrous project was short of support already, especially in the deep and broadly blue Bay Area, even shown in the best-known poll about it.
Item 2, Table 2
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7sn293xs
Tables 25-28
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/903863nm
One can always find fans like the following stellar example of so many now, not only his article’s body but in his follow-up comments. Snazzier tech-as-toys prose is in tech sites. There’s also the Alfred Twu map so many take seriously. More serious grift requires Kunz’s group, naturally with its own system map.
I’m reminded of steam engines, but burning money rather than coal or wood.
https://seattletransitblog.com/2019/02/15/can-we-replace-cross-country-air-with-rail-travel-yes-we-can/
https://compote.slate.com/images/1b1465fb-4e47-4a3a-9609-86b329b14ed8.png
https://ushsr.com/__static/847c2c47271ee1612ff13cfc31638409/aushsr-map-new-2-syst2.gif
Y-yup. They’d boost their support after criticism from the Senator from Texas.
So it goes, as usual.