{"id":1973,"date":"2019-11-26T11:30:56","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T18:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=1973"},"modified":"2019-11-27T04:07:37","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T11:07:37","slug":"challenging-the-california-high-speed-rail-leadership-and-project-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=1973","title":{"rendered":"Challenging the California High Speed Rail Leadership and Project Direction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Written by Michael Palomba<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">California\u2019s \u201chigh speed rail,\u201d or HSP for short, has been in the works for decades. The California High-Speed Rail Authority was established in 1996. Proposition 1A, also known as the <\/span>Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century<b>, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">passed in 2008.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, with over two decades spent on this project, there is virtually nothing to show for it. It was only a few months ago that Governor Gavin Newsom announced plans to scrap the high-speed rail line from San Francisco to Los Angeles. He claimed it would take too long and cost too much.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This prompted a quick response from President Trump. The federal government contributed billions to the project, and Trump said that California would have to pay that back since their project failed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">California has been forced to cancel the massive bullet train project after having spent and wasted many billions of dollars. They owe the Federal Government three and a half billion dollars. We want that money back now. Whole project is a \u201cgreen\u201d disaster!<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1095857587344551936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 14, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So what is the status of the project, which has consumed over $5 billion?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Currently, CEO Brian Kelly and Board Chairman Lenny Mendonca are pushing a \u201cspend all existing funds in the Central Valley agenda.\u201d Governor Newsom, at least currently, does endorse the present plans.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite this, HSR Board Director Danny Curtin and other Democrats support diverting around $5 billion away from the present plans to other projects in both Northern and Southern California.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kelly\u2019s responded, \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The idea to divert money from what we\u2019re doing now and spend it on regional services, to me, is not consistent with the mission of high-speed rail. That\u2019s my opinion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The goal of Prop 1A, which laid the groundwork for the rail, specified that the HSP would be able to transport passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco in two hours and 40 minutes, or less. The current plans of spending all existing funds in the Central Valley will not accomplish that goal, at least for the foreseeable future. According to the State Auditor, the project is $50 billion short of being able to meet that goal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What would be accomplished by the current plans would be starting operations on the segment from Merced to Bakersfield. However, there would be an operating subsidy required, a blatant violation of Prop 1A, which requires there be no operating subsidy. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For reference, the MTS system currently has an operating subsidy. This means the price of the ticket does not cover the cost of the ride, so the additional cost is covered by the state.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Currently, the Federal Transportation Inspector General is conducting an audit of the authority which is scheduled to be released this winter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As of now, the exact fate of the rail is unknown. There will be a vote sometime next year to decide what happens with unallocated $4 billion that remains for the project.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But one thing we know for sure: nobody will be taking the high speed anytime soon, if ever at all.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Written by Michael Palomba California\u2019s \u201chigh speed rail,\u201d or HSP for short, has been in the works for decades. The California High-Speed Rail Authority was established in 1996. Proposition 1A, also known as the Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century, was passed in 2008. However, with over two decades spent&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1938,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v16.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Challenging the California High Speed Rail Leadership and Project Direction - San Diego News Desk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=1973\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Challenging the California High Speed Rail Leadership and Project Direction - San Diego News Desk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Written by Michael Palomba California\u2019s \u201chigh speed rail,\u201d or HSP for short, has been in the works for decades. 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