High Cost Rail - Part 163 The DOGE commeth

There are multiple news reports that relay and expand on Vivek Ramaswamy's tweet about our very own high-cost rail boondoggle.  As co-head of the DOGE, he's got some pull to make things happen--or in this case, hopefully to make things not happen.  Regular Voice readers who are familiar with the first 162 posts on our boondoggle, know the ugly truth.  The project is mired in an expensive quagmire.  It's original questionable value just keeps sinking.  Here is a three-and-a-half-year-old reminder.  The DOGE tweet notes

Late last month Ramaswamy pointed out on X that “This is a wasteful vanity project, burning billions in taxpayer cash, with little prospect for completion in the next decade. President Trump correctly rescinded ~$1BN in federal funds for this boondoggle in 2019, but Biden reversed that & doubled down. Time to end the waste.”

The California Globe digs a bit deeper on the numbers

This led to Thursday when proposed DOGE co-Commissioners Ramaswamy and Elon Musk were in Washington talking to GOP leadership about the proposed DOGE. Potential targets were discussed, with California High Speed rail being one of them, along with Medicare, Social Security and electric vehicle subsidies.

While California lawmakers have yet to publicly respond to a possible cut of all federal funds for the high speed rail project as of Friday afternoon, critics of the high speed rail plan have said that federal cuts of that magnitude would put the project in a real bind, perhaps even delaying opening of it further into the 2030s.

“If DOGE does become reality and they deliver on their promise on getting rid of all federal funding for the project, then the state will have to deal with that shortfall,” transportation industry accountant Derrick Clark told the Globe Friday. “Right now, the project is trying to get $4.7 billion in federal grants to stay at their current spending levels. Biden is likely to get them $200 million of that before leaving office, leaving it up to Trump to approve the other $4.5 billion in grants. And that he is likely not going to do, especially if DOGE highlights that.

High-cost rail is such low-hanging fruit for a early DOGE win that I cannot see any way that another $4.5B gets released.  The next question is how does Newsom react?  He's termed out in 2026, so reputational protection is pretty much his 24-hour raison d'etre at this point.  One lame duck should kill the other.

Comments

[Phinancier]

How is this for more Fed stupidity?

EPA gives California $144 million in grants: The money will fund 13 projects to help wean the Golden State off fossil fuels and phase out big rigs running on diesel. The money comes from the Inflation Reduction Act.

You have to be a complete moron to think forcing long haul truckers to dump their rigs for an e-rig is a good idea. Just wait to see what happens to our prices on out of state goods when truckers stop in Reno and Vegas to hand off their loads to e-rigs.

[Paloma Ave]

90% of the world's pollution comes from other countries. If the USA were to go completely carbon-free it would make no difference! Stop believing the BS that the climate is in crisis. The climate will be in crisis when we cannot leave our homes. Better yet, go to the biggest polluters, China and India, and make them do what you want us to do.

[Peter Garrison]

And the all electric scam?

Glad we had natural gas during the 4-day power outage up here in the hills…

[Joe]

California Rep. Kevin Kiley is backing up the DOGE with this"

Today I'm officially introducing the No More Funds for California High Speed Rail Act. This disastrous project has embarrassed our state and robbed our taxpayers long enough.

“California’s high-speed rail project has failed because of political incompetence, and there is no plausible scenario where the cost to federal or state taxpayers can be justified,” Rep. Kiley said. “Our share of federal transportation funding should go towards real infrastructure needs, such as improving roads that rank among the worst in the country.”
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Let's start with a couple mil for ECR!

[Joe]

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy got the pearl-clutchers riled up this week by announcing the expected review of the High Cost Rail monies coming from the Feds. Rep. Kevin Kiley did the same down in San Jose where some of the people who have been feeding at this big trough for years protested the review. But of course, you can find a dozen or two dozen people to protest just about anything.

The Merc headline was fun: Trump administration threatens $4 billion in funding for California high-speed rail

A rewrite might be: Trump administration saves $4 billion in funding for California and US taxpayers

This "review" should take about five minutes. The Merc even tells us why:

In 2008, voters approved $10 billion in bonds for the project, which was envisioned as a two-hour-and-40-minute ride from Los Angeles to San Francisco. In the years since, it has become somewhat of a poster child for political dysfunction.

Originally estimated to cost $45 billion for the 776-mile line and slated to open in 2030, the cost estimate has grown to nearly $128 billion, thanks to inflation and growing real estate and labor costs. It could be decades before the train is extended north to San Francisco and south to Los Angeles.
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Now is the time to finish this off with the stroke of a pen. Please, Mr. Duffy.

[Peter Garrison]

Please

[Joe]

I missed this IG report, but the Howard Jarvis group noted it in their email today:

To make matters worse, a report issued just last week by the Office of Inspector General for California High-Speed Rail concluded that even more delays are likely. The report was titled, “Merced to Bakersfield Segment: The Authority is Unlikely to Complete the Segment as Currently Envisioned within Its Planned Schedule.” Other critiques in the report include the fact that, “The Authority has not maintained the procurement timeline it established to meet the M-B schedule.”