California’s efforts to build the first high -speed rail network in the country, whose projected costs have almost tripled since it began in 2008, can be eliminated 4 billion dollars of funds previously approved after a review of the program by the Department of Transportation.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump expressed his discontent with the project, falsely stating that he had “hundreds of billions of dollars of cost overruns.” In fact, the total projected cost of the 400 mile network is set at about 100 billion dollars, of which 15.7 billion have already been spent, using only about 3 billion dollars of federal money so far. Even so, the newly appointed Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, said that both the growing cost of the railroad, which has risen from an initial estimate of about 33 billion dollars, and its diffuse schedule for its completion make it a bad commitment to US taxpayers.
“I will exercise my authority as secretary of Transportation to order the Federal Railway Administration (FR) to initiate a review of compliance with the financing to the California High Speed Railways Authority,” Duffy said at a press conference at Union Station in the center of Los Angeles on Thursday. “This will help determine whether billions of dollars of taxpayers must remain committed to the California High Speed Railroad. We will analyze whether the California’s high speed railroad has really complied with the agreements he has signed with the Federal Government. ”
The loss of any financing for the project at this time would put the state’s capacity at risk to open the initial segment of 171 miles that crosses the central valley and connect cities such as Merced, Fresno and Bakersfield. That first section, which currently uses about 15,000 workers, was planned to be inaugurated in the early 2030s. There is no firm schedule for the completion of connections with San Francisco and Los Angeles, due to the need to ensure at least 70,000 million dollars of additional financing.
“We appreciate this research and the opportunity to work with our federal partners,” said Ian Choudri, executive director of the state rail authority. “With multiple federal and state independent audits, each dollar is counted and supported the progress and impact of this project.”
Although Duffy and Trump do not like the state project, the Brightline West Balance Train, of 12,000 million dollars, of the multimillionaire Wes Eden, who intends to connect Las Vegas with the Los Angeles suburbs with the help of a federal subsidy of 3,000 million dollars, seems to continue with the support of the new administration. An offer of private bonds to cover the remaining cost of the Brightline project already has a price today, which values the offer at 2.5 billion dollars.
“It looks like a project that is worth investing,” said Duffy. “But this project, if completed, 400 miles from Los Angeles to San Francisco, will cost 106 billion dollars in the best of cases. Most people will say that it is an optimistic estimate. There is no way to complete for 106 billion dollars. ”
While Duffy finished his comments, a few dozen protesters gathered near the press conference at the train station, holding posters in favor of the state rail project and chanting Anti-Trump, Anti-Musk and Anti-Duffy slogans.
By coincidence, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday that his government intended to provide $ 2.7 billion to help build a high -speed rail line to connect cities such as Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec.
This article was originally published by Forbes Us.
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