CA High-Speed Rail Gets More Funds Amid Budget Increases, Delays
A high-speed rail project in California that’s already $25 billion over budget and years behind schedule just received a $25 million federal grant and is seeking another $1.3 billion.
The high-speed rail under construction is supposed to ultimately connect San Francisco and Los Angeles. The train would travel at over 200 miles per hour, with the trip only taking three hours. It would run entirely on renewable energy, Reuters reported.
The $25 million grant comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation. That amount is more than half of the estimated $41 million for a design contract to connect the cities of Madera and Merced.
The project got $24 million last fall from the Biden administration "for crucial safety, efficiency and construction projects" around Wasco, the State of California said.
But the Golden State is also seeking $1.3 billion in federal grant funding to double-track the 119 miles under construction and purchase new train sets, Reuters reported.
The initial segment from Merced to Bakersfield, currently under construction, has often been maligned as a “train to nowhere,” The San Francisco Examiner reported.
As part of the 2021 $1 trillion infrastructure bill, Congress approved $66 billion for rail, with Amtrak receiving $22 billion, and $36 billion allocated for competitive grants.
While then-President Donald Trump pulled funding for the project in 2019 as it was “hobbled by delays and rising costs,” according to Reuters, in June 2021, the Biden administration restored a $929 million grant for the project.
The California project is slated to be the first U.S. high-speed rail project, partly operating by 2029 and most of it completed by 2033. Its initial $80 billion cost estimate from 2020 has already ballooned to an estimated final cost of $105 billion.
This has been in the works for a while. California voters passed a referendum in 2008 to fund the initial $10 billion bond, and two years later, $3.5 billion in federal grant money was allocated.
A high-speed train would be nice for people traveling around the third largest state in the union. But at what price?
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