The federal government is cancelling more funding for California’s maligned High-Speed Rail project.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Tuesday that the Federal Railroad Administration withdrew over $175 million in funding for four projects related to High-Speed Rail.
The big picture: The federal government reviewed the benefits and risks of unobligated projects related to High-Speed Rail, determining that advancing the projects is not justified.
- The four projects are the Le Grand Overcrossing Project on the Merced Extension ($90 million), the Southern San Jose Grade Separations ($7.5 million), the DTX Final Design for Track and Rail Systems Project ($25 million) and the Madera High-Speed Rail Station Project ($55 million).
What he’s saying: “In twenty years, California has not been able to lay a single track of high-speed rail. Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg didn’t care about these failures and dumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the state’s wish list of related fantasy projects,” Duffy said. “The waste ends here. As of today, the American people are done investing in California’s failed experiment. Instead, my Department will focus on making travel great again by investing in well-managed projects that can make projects like high-speed rail a reality.”
Flashback: Duffy already announced in July that the Federal Railroad Administration terminated $4 billion in grant funding to the California High-Speed Rail Authority.
- That decision came after an audit into the project revealed that the authority does not have a viable path forward to completing the initial Merced to Bakersfield line by 2033.
The backstory: California voters approved High-Speed Rail in 2008 for an initial expected cost of $33 billion to be completed by 2020.
- But the total cost of the project has ballooned to around $130 billion, and the authority has shifted to focus on only the first 171-mile Merced to Bakersfield stretch to start with.
