California Democrats have written to outgoing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg asking for more than $500 million in funding for the troubled high-speed rail project, as President-elect Donald Trump Funding for the program was canceled in 2019. [emphasis, links added]
According to Breitbart News, Trump withheld $1 billion in funding for the project after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) canceled the original project.
Newsom explained to the state Legislature that the original plan for a Los Angeles to San Francisco “bullet train” would “cost too much and take too long.”
Trump then demanded the state return federal taxpayer funds — Adopt the same rules as the private sector.
Newsom resisted, and when President Joe Biden was elected, he restored funding.
Biden has also increased federal funding for another high-speed rail project, a train from Los Angeles to Las Vegas that shows more commercial promise and was originally launched by private investors.
Trump is unlikely to block the latter project, but he is unlikely to support the former, Currently only plans are planned to connect stations in inland California.
this san francisco chronicle Saturday report:
Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff join San Bernardino Rep. Pete Aguilar; Jim Costa , D-Fresno; San Jose Democrat Zoe Lofgren on Friday called on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to approve the $536 million project. In a letter to Buttigieg, they called the project “critical.”
The funding will fund design work for the first two segments of the plan, from Bakersfield to Palmdale (Los Angeles County) and from Gilroy to the confluence of the Central Valley south of Chowchilla (Madera County) point. Specifically, the funding will fund the design of tunnels through Southern California’s Tehachapi Mountains and Northern California’s Pacheco Pass.
…
California voters originally approved $10 billion in bond funding for the project in 2008. Its projected costs have soared to $89 billion to $128 billion. Even according to the most optimistic predictions, it will not be until 2030 at the earliest before all sections of the road are completed and available for riders.
The high-speed rail funding request was just a last-minute plea from California Democrats to the White House.
Last week, the Biden administration approved Newsom’s plan to eliminate sales of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035 — Even in California, electric vehicle sales are well below targets.
President-elect Trump is expected to Once he took office, he repealed that policy and other federal electric vehicle regulations.
Trump's selection of former Republican Rep. Sean Duffy as his transportation secretary nominee continues a tradition of nominating officials from the Midwest, which has long been America's transportation hub.
Read more at Breitbart News
