{"id":455387,"date":"2025-02-06T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T08:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/?p=455387"},"modified":"2025-02-07T20:10:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-08T04:10:51","slug":"high-speed-rail-trump-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/_ko\/commentary\/2025\/02\/high-speed-rail-trump-train\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump targets California’s troubled bullet train project. It may deserve a mercy killing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lea esta nota de Opini\u00f3n en \uc2a4\ud398\uc778\uc5b4<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talk about timing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President \ub3c4\ub110\ub4dc \ud2b8\ub7fc\ud504<\/a> denounced California\u2019s bullet train<\/a> for the project\u2019s delays and rising costs on Tuesday, and said his administration would investigate<\/a> how billions of federal and state dollars have been spent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe train that\u2019s being built between Los Angeles and San Francisco is the worst-managed project I think I\u2019ve ever seen, and I\u2019ve seen some of the worst,\u201d Trump told reporters, asserting that the project is \u201cbillions and billions\u201d of dollars over budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to start a big investigation of that, because I\u2019ve never seen anything like it,\u201d he added. \u201cNobody\u2019s ever seen anything like it. The worst overruns that there have ever been in the history of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s remarks came just 24 hours after the project\u2019s inspector general, Benjamin Belnap, issued a sharply worded report<\/a> on the first phase of what is envisioned as a statewide system, saying it\u2019s unlikely that the High-Speed Rail Authority can meet its current goal of beginning passenger service between Merced and Bakersfield by 2033.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith a smaller remaining schedule envelope and the potential for significant uncertainty and risk during subsequent phases of the project, staying within the 2033 schedule envelope is unlikely,\u201d Belnap wrote. \u201cIn fact, uncertainty about some parts of the project has increased as the authority has recently made decisions that deviated from the procurement and funding strategies that were part of its plans for staying on schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the latest chapter in the tortured history of the project, which was pushed by transit advocates for more than three decades before voters approved a $9.95 billion bond issue<\/a> in 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, state officials have struggled to complete the 119-mile initial segment between Chowchilla and an orchard near Shafter, much less the 52 miles of extensions to Merced and Bakersfield that Gov. Gavin Newsom sought after becoming governor in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newsom was highly critical of the project when he took office, saying, \u201clet\u2019s be real. The current project, as planned, would cost too much and respectfully take too long. There\u2019s been too little oversight and not enough transparency.”<\/p>\n\n\n\t\n\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tby<\/span> Yousef Baig<\/a><\/span>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\n

\u201cRight now, there simply isn\u2019t a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego (in the second phase), let alone from San Francisco to LA,\u201d Newsom said. \u201cI wish there were. However, we do have the capacity to complete a high-speed rail link between Merced and Bakersfield.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He’s changed his tune<\/a> in recent years as the Biden administration ponied up billions in federal support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project\u2019s current estimate is that Merced-Bakersfield would cost $35.3 billion, more than the 2008 projection for a complete system<\/a>. However, the Legislature\u2019s budget analyst, Gabe Petek, says it has just $28.7 billion<\/a> in state bonds, federal grants and a quarter of the state\u2019s proceeds from auctioning permits for emissions of greenhouse gases, as much as $1 billion a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latter revenue source, known as “cap-and-trade,” was approved by legislators on the assumption that a bullet train would play a significant role in the state\u2019s crusade against carbon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project officials have estimated that a statewide system would reduce auto travel by 10 million miles a day<\/a>, but Californians drive nearly a billion miles each day. A 10 million-mile reduction would ostensibly cut emissions by scarcely 1%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Logically, spending emission auction money on more direct carbon reduction programs, such as reducing emission-spewing wildfires, would make more sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current estimate for linking San Francisco with Southern California is $107 billion. Officials don\u2019t even know how to fully finance Merced-Bakersfield, much less raise the other $72.4 billion they would need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s opposition adds another uncertainty<\/a>. During his first presidency, Trump clawed back some of the federal funds that the Obama administration awarded, but Joe Biden’s administration returned the money after California filed a lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump seems even more determined to derail California\u2019s bullet train. Given its sorry history, it could be a mercy killing.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\n\t\t

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Seeking LA fire aid, Gavin Newsom is set to meet Donald Trump in D.C.<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This would be ‘devastating’: California sues to stop Trump’s chaos-inducing funding freeze<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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