An announcement is expected on Thursday at Los Angeles Union Station on the future of California’s troubled high-speed rail projects.
U.S. Transport Secretary Sean Duffy was scheduled to speak at a 9:30am press conference in downtown LA station. Details of the announcement “California High Speed Rail Priorities” were not available immediately.
The visit comes about a week after President Trump’s comments about the project, and following a new report from the project inspector, the investigation shows that it is unable to achieve its key timeline goals. It indicates that it was opened to.
“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.
A California Republican lawmaker in Sacramento wrote to President Trump last week in support of an investigation into the state’s plagued 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 project’s inspector’s report was released on February 3rd in the first phase, planned as a statewide rail system, and the project will begin passenger service between Merced and Bakersfield by 2033. It has been shown that it is unlikely to achieve the goal of doing so.
California voters approved bond measures for the railroad project in 2008.
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 increase in uncertainty regarding 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.
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.”
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