A California Republican lawmaker in Sacramento wrote to President Trump last week in support of an investigation into the state’s difficult high-speed rail project.
The letter calls for an investigation into the feasibility of the project and holds high-speed rail authorities accountable for its “mismanagement and broken promise.” The letter dated February 13th was drafted after President Trump levelled his own criticism in the project last week.
“It’s the worst project I’ve ever seen,” Trump said. “And I have seen some of the worst, over billions, hundreds of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars.
“We’re going to start researching that. I’m making a living, I’ve built up my time and budget. It’s impossible for something to cost that much.”
Research and timeline details were not available.
Trump’s remarks follow reports by inspectors of the project, which was released on Feb. 3 in the first phase of what was planned as a statewide rail system. A report by Inspector Benjamin Berknap shows that it is unlikely that the project will be able to achieve its goal of starting passenger services between Merced and Bakersfield by 2033.
Work continues on a 119-mile stretch that brings together the Central Valley communities of Merced, Fresno and Bakersfield. The target completion window is from 2030 to 2033.
“The remaining schedule envelopes are rarely left in the 2033 schedule envelope due to the smallest possible number of significant uncertainties and risks during subsequent phases of the project,” writes Bellnap. “In fact, there has been an increasing uncertainty about parts of the project as authorities recently made decisions that deviate from their procurement and funding strategies, which are part of their plans to maintain their schedule.”
Republican Congressman Alexandra Macedo was one of the lawmakers who signed a letter calling for an investigation and asked for answers on moving forward. She represents the counties of Fresno, Kings and Tulea.
“The High Speed Railroad Bureau has spent a lot of taxpayer dollars on flashy models and very aggressive public relations campaigns,” Macedo said at the NBCLA news conference. “I really hope we can reach voters and hope that Donald Trump can help me with this. The truth is 17 years from now, after $13.7 billion, and there’s no track.”
Specifically, the inspector’s general report questioned why the Bakersfield segment risk analysis was not completed from Merced to determine the feasibility of the project.
The NBCLA reached out to the railway authorities for a response.
Macedo also seeks redirects of state discretionary funds used for rail projects, claiming that they will spend money on fire and recovery projects as well as projects for water infrastructure.
“Voters in 2008 have been promised a project connecting San Francisco and LA, and will be fully funded with matching funds from the federal government and the private sector. They were supposed to be completed in 2020. The high-speed rail is actually in fact. It’s not done. Any project is just a job.”
January, Gov. Gavin Newsom visited a location just outside Bakersfield and broke through the ground at a new phase of the project, performing a 22-mile railroad line athletics and “substantial completion.”
“No state in the US is closer to launching high speed rails than California. Today we just took a big step,” Newsom said. “We will move into the track railing phase, complete the structure of the main segments and lay the foundation for our high-speed rail network.
“The future of transportation is here in Central Valley, with thousands of good paying jobs already being created and 171 miles are working on. We’ve built America’s largest infrastructure project so that only California can do it. It’s there.”
Macedo was asked if the rail connection would benefit the community in her district. Some of them are growing at the fastest rates in California.
“”That’s not the case. We are not a commuter town,” she said. “And the big argument for this is the reduction in greenhouse gases. Are the consequences of these fires that we’ve been going on for years now? Water is the amount of greenhouse gases emissions for things like agricultural areas. How many jobs are we going to lose as a result of not getting our infrastructure?
“Let’s talk about those towns. If you don’t clean safe drinking water, they’re not such a viable living space. This is a luxury project that California doesn’t have the luxury of giving up money. That’s right. At this point.”
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