Tag: rail

Cost of California’s High-Speed Rail Goes Up Again

It was also supposed to be carrying 65.5 million to 96.5 million intercity riders a year by 2030. Yet now 2040 is the date for “full service to start.” Skeptics don’t believe we’ll ever see the train run with paying customers aboard.

“In my judgment, the Draft 2026 Business Plan describes a project that has reached a dead end,” says Louis S. Thompson, a 15-year member of the California High Speed Rail Peer Review Group that was established by legislation.

In a letter to lawmakers, Thompson, who was also on the team that created Amtrak, said that after so many changes in the project—cost, design revisions, longer estimated trip times—it’s “not, not even remotely, the system the voters approved in Proposition 1A” in 2008.

Early last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom, that “Steel Driving Man,” promised there soon would be some visible manifestation of the train’s “progress.” A few months later, HSRA CEO Ian Choudri promised, “We are going to be laying high speed tracks next year.”

The HSRA “expects to achieve several other procurement milestones in 2026,” but not track laying and there is no hard deadline for it to begin to be found in the plan. There is only a three-and-a-half-year timeline, which starts in July for the “Track & Systems Design & Construction” of the first section in the Central Valley.

In other words, the HSRA has provided itself cover should it fall short of its 2026 promise.

California’s perpetually unfolding mess has caught the attention of the editorial board of a newspaper one state over after a recent “60 Minutes” report “shined the spotlight on what has become the most embarrassing and costly government infrastructure boondoggle in US history.”

“Has there ever been a greater fraud perpetrated on the taxpayers than California’s high-speed rail travesty?” asked the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Where are the folks at ‘American Greed’ when you need them?”

That is, of course, a reference to the CNBC documentary series “American Greed: Scams, Scoundrels and Scandals.” It won’t happen, but it would be fitting, if the HSRA borrowed the program’s name for the subtitle of its 2027 business plan, which this year is shamelessly being called “Transforming California’s Future.”

Keep reading

Ontario landowners push back against high-speed rail and property rights threats

Landowners gathered at the Ontario Landowners Association (OLA) general meeting in Cobourg to voice strong opposition to the federal government’s proposed $90-billion Alto high-speed rail project, warning it threatens private property rights through aggressive expropriation and sweeping legislative changes.

The project, aimed at linking Toronto and Quebec City, has sparked alarm among rural residents and farmers in eastern Ontario as letters from Alto arrive, requesting access to private land for surveys, soil testing, and environmental assessments.

Many fear that allowing entry could weaken their legal standing and pave the way for forced takings.

“There is no law that requires property owners to allow anyone onto their property with respect to Alto,” OLA president Jeff Bogaerts relayed. “The moment you allow Alto onto your property, your property rights are going away.”

Attendees noted that the lack of clear route details, crossing plans, or impact assessments has left landowners in the dark.

Critics like Conservative MP Philip Lawrence argue that the project is fundamentally flawed. At speeds requiring grade separation, every road, farm lane, or crossing demands expensive overpasses or underpasses, costing millions each.

For him and concerned landowners, the economics don’t add up: an estimated $8,000 per Canadian household, with most taxpayers (outside of the 1,000 km corridor between Toronto and Quebec City) unlikely to ever use the service.

“It’s my property. I should be able to do what I want with it,” one farmer stated plainly. “We don’t need it, we can’t afford it, and it’s just a bad idea,” said another.

Others pointed out practical inconveniences, such as disrupted local travel patterns that could force longer drives for basic needs like groceries.

Concerns extend beyond cost and disruption, with speakers highlighting potential conflicts of interest, noting involvement of firms like SNC-Lavalin (now rebranded Atkins Realis), compounded by the fact that Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s partner is vice-president of Alto’s environmental division.

Questions also arose about the project’s alignment with broader global agendas under Prime Minister Mark Carney, with former MP Jack MacLaren saying, “I hope the train goes where the new world order goes, and that’s nowhere.”

Nowhere — that’s exactly where a 2018 Ontario government proposal for a high-speed rail line ended up, despite plans to have it running by 2025 and an $11 billion ‘commitment’ to the failed project.

Ironically, a copy of that year’s OLA magazine was shared with attendees, showing just how relevant those same concerns persist nearly a decade later.

Keep reading

Total Cost of California High-Speed Rail Line Rises to $126 Billion, With a Big Funding Shortfall

California’s high-speed rail project connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco is now estimated to cost $126 billion, a rail authority board member said in an interview released by CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday.

But the High-Speed Rail Authority, according to its 2026 Business Plan issued in February, forecasts $39.3 billion in capital funding through 2045, a shortfall of around $87 billion.

“It is a big gap to fill,” board member Anthony Williams said, “[but] we have an understanding of how to get there and to fill that gap.”

The project, approved by voters in 2008, was supposed to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles by high-speed rail for around $33 billion and a completion date of 2020.

“We’re now in 2026,” Republican Congressman Vince Fong of Bakersfield said in the interview. “There are no trains. There’s no track laid. It was a complete bait and switch. The business plan that was put out in 2008 was very theoretical. You know, ‘This is what we think is gonna happen.’ And it became very clear that they didn’t have the specifics worked out.”

Toks Omishakin, who became California’s secretary of transportation in 2022, admitted that mistakes had been made and a lot of the project’s criticism is “very fair.”

Keep reading

LA to Vegas high speed train now predicted to cost $21 BILLION, as critics warn final sum will be far higher

The price tag for the much-anticipated high-speed train between Southern California and Las Vegas has soared to $21.5 billion with warnings the number could keep rising. 

The 218-mile railway will take passengers from Las Vegas to Southern California in just two hours, with a Metrolink connecting them to Los Angeles Union Station.

At speeds of up to 200 mph, Brightline West hopes that its project will promote a ‘car-free, care-free lifestyle’.

Earlier this year, Brightline West reported that the railway’s construction would cost $16 billion, double the initially projection. 

But rising costs due to labor shortages, material cost inflation, and competition from other infrastructure projects has driven the cost up even further, according to Desert Sun. 

To make up for the difference, the company has requested a $6 billion federal loan through the US Department of Transportation.

The company issued $2.5 billion in private activity bonds in February, which requires it to secure the necessary loan by November. 

But if they can’t secure it, they may end up paying even more and be forced to repay investors early. 

Initially, the railway was supposed to open in 2027, in time for the Summer Olympics in LA the following year, but the date has been pushed back to 2029. 

Brightline West ceremonially broke ground on the project in April 2024 and preliminary construction has begun. 

The all-electric trains will be built along the Interstate 15 median with new stations in Apple Valley and Hesperia.

The final stop in Rancho Cucamonga, California will connect passengers to LA on a pre-existing Metro line. 

Brightline West claims taking the high-speed rail will be two times faster than the driving time which can take up to five hours. 

They also boast that they will create more than 10,000 job during construction and 800 permanent operations and maintenance jobs.

It’s also environmentally friendly and is projected to save 325,000 metric tons of CO2 each year.

According to their website: ‘Brightline is the only private provider of modern, eco-friendly, intercity passenger rail service in America.’

Keep reading

Leaked Emails Show EPA Sought To Discredit Scientist After Ohio Train Derailment Disaster

Leaked emails from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) show that the agency sought to discredit an independent scientist who questioned official data on contamination following the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment and fire in February 2023.

Following the official EPA announcement that were no dangerous levels of toxins in the area and that it was safe for residents to return home, independent testing expert Scott Smith reported finding high levels of dioxins in the soil in East Palestine.

According to News Nation, when Smith’s findings were reported in spring of 2023, former EPA administrator Judith Enck said the agency should pay attention to Smith’s test results.

Instead of taking new samples and doing similar testing, leaked emails show that the EPA began collecting Smith’s personal information and monitoring his actions in an effort to discredit the environmental scientist.

Smith’s personal information and whereabouts were distributed to more than 50 EPA employees, his dog’s picture was circulated and drones were documented hovering near the scientist on multiple occasions.

Lesley Pacey, with the Government Accountability Project, told NewsNation that the EPA’s response was “troubling” since it was a matter of public health.

Pacey said, “What the EPA seems to have done here in East Palestine is that they were more interested in controlling the narrative and controlling what was going out to the community, from the community and back to the community,” adding, “They were definitely controlling the narrative of nothing to see here, no long-term health impacts.”

Keep reading

Ernst Presses DOT to Reclaim $14 Billion from Overbudget Rail Projects After Audit

Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) announced a new push to rescind or redirect $14 billion in federal transportation funding from what she calls “boondoggle” rail projects that are years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget, according to a letter sent this week to Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.

In the letter, Ernst commended Secretary Duffy for releasing a long-delayed audit of California’s high-speed rail project and for canceling $4 billion in federal funding for the effort. The Department of Transportation’s 315-page report, required by a provision Ernst authored in the bipartisan infrastructure law (Section 11319 of Public Law 117-58), outlined what Ernst called a “trail of project delays, mismanagement, waste, and skyrocketing costs.”

DOT found that the California high-speed rail project failed to meet the terms of its federal grant awards, citing missed deadlines, budget shortfalls, and exaggerated ridership projections. The project, originally pitched to voters in 2008 as a $33 billion rail line connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles by 2020, has since ballooned to $128 billion with no high-speed tracks laid.

Ernst praised DOT’s review as setting “a new gold standard in accountability” and urged Secretary Duffy to apply similar scrutiny to other federally funded projects identified under her boondoggle law. She listed four projects currently receiving a combined $4.5 billion from taxpayers: Honolulu Rail Transit in Hawaii at $1,941,400,000; the Purple Line Transit in Maryland at $1,006,000,000; the Transbay Corridor Core Capacity project in California at $1,335,730,000; and the Queens Railroad Project in New York at $294,781,579.

The letter also highlighted three additional projects that Ernst said were omitted from the official audit despite being over budget and behind schedule. These include the Subway Extension to Silicon Valley, California, receiving over $5 billion; the San Francisco Transit Center at $3.38 billion; and the Minneapolis Light Rail project in Minnesota at roughly $939 million. According to Ernst, the Department of Transportation has committed $9.4 billion to these three projects alone.

“If these can’t be salvaged with better management, they too should be canceled,” Ernst wrote. She suggested that the total $14 billion could be redirected to higher-priority infrastructure needs or used to help pay down the national debt, which she noted has surpassed $37 trillion.

Although the audit of California’s high-speed rail project was over 300 pages long, Ernst noted that the DOT’s summary of the other 14 projects required by her provision was condensed into a one-page chart. She called for greater detail in future “boondoggle reports,” including information on budget overruns, schedule delays, and additional DOD-supported transportation efforts.

Keep reading

California High-Speed Train Boondoggle Reveals Collusion of Blue Government and Environmentalists

Socialists and Communists love trains for the masses.  They go where they are told, and Citizens do not have the freedom to change their mind and go somewhere else.  Cars and Freeways allow too much freedom.  The utopia of passenger trains in America was supposed to be the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) project to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles with over 800 miles of tracks.  From 1981 to 2008 plans were made and a vote to proceed was approved by Californians with funding via a state bond plus Federal Funding.  In 2015 the initial construction commenced.

Fortunately, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and President Trump brought an end to this insanity and announced on July 16 that the Federal Railroad Administration was terminating and clawing back approximately $4 billion in unspent federal funding for California’s High-Speed Rail debacle.

Secretary Duffy’s announcement said, “After 16 years and roughly $15 billion spent, not one high speed track has been laid by the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA). The $135 billion projected total cost of the project could buy every San Francisco and LA resident nearly 200 roundtrip flights between the cities.

Secretary Duffy went on, “This is California’s fault. Governor Newsom and the complicit Democrats have enabled this waste for years. Federal dollars are not a blank check – they come with a promise to deliver results. After over a decade of failures, CHSRA’s mismanagement and incompetence has proven it cannot build its train to nowhere on time or on budget.  It’s time for this boondoggle to die.”  Governor Newsom recently appeared on the Shawn Ryan show and lied about all the progress on the CHSRA project.

Keep reading

Trump administration funds $10 million study on health effects of East Palestine train derailment

The Trump administration has launched a study of the long-term health consequences for residents of East Palestine, Ohio, from a train derailment that spilled toxic chemicals in 2023.

The initiative, spearheaded by Vice President J.D. Vance, comes after he was brushed off by Biden administration officials when he urged a study on any detrimental environmental and health effects on the East Palestine community. Mr. Vance was a U.S. senator representing Ohio at the time.

Under President Trump, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Director of the National Institutes of Health Jay Bhattacharya have launched a five-year, $10 million research initiative to investigate the disaster’s long-term health impacts.

“I’ve been to East Palestine a number of times, and they’re very worried about, what are the long-term impacts of these chemicals in the water, in the air, what effect does it have on their kids and grandkids after five years, 10 years, 15 years of exposure?” Mr. Vance said during an announcement of the initiative, while flanked by Mr. Kennedy and Dr. Battacharya.

“I tried as a United States senator to work with the Biden administration, and they refused to do anything to actually study the effects of these long-term exposures on the people of East Palestine,” he said.

Mr. Kennedy called the effort “the first large-scale, coordinated, multi-year federal study focused specifically on the long-term health impacts of the East Palestine disaster.

“The program will support robust community-engaged epidemiological research to understand the impacts of exposures on short and long-term injuries,” he said.

According to Mr. Kennedy, the program will also “support public health tracking and surveillance of the community’s health conditions to help us make informed health care choices and take appropriate preventative measures.”

Keep reading

Trump administration to pull $4 billion from California high-speed rail funding

The U.S. Department of Transportation says it plans to revoke $4 billion in federal funding for California’s high-speed rail project, citing what it calls “no viable path forward.”

The announcement came Wednesday in a 310-page report that outlines concerns about the project’s ballooning costs and delays, claiming the California High-Speed Rail Authority does not have the capacity to deliver the early operating segment by 2033 as planned. The DOT gave California 37 days to respond and correct the issues before the funding termination becomes final.

Voters initially signed off on California’s ambitious plans for a bullet train in 2008, with promises to connect the greater Los Angeles area to the Bay Area by 2033. It was originally expected to cost $33 billion, but now, estimates range between $89 billion and $128 billion.

Construction began in the Central Valley in 2015 but has incrementally progressed.

“Fifteen years, $16 billion, not one high-speed rail track has been laid. the waste, the abuse and the mismanagement of this project has called for this investigation,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in an online video.

Transit policy experts acknowledge the project faces major financial hurdles. Sebastian Petty, a senior advisor at SPUR, said the project is struggling to deliver on promises made to voters, largely due to limited funding.

“It puts pressure on what are already fairly scarce state dollars for transportation. So if, California is going to continue to invest heavily in the high-speed rail system, it puts pressure on the availability of that funding for transit operations uses potentially for other transit capital projects in the Bay Area,” Petty said.

Supporters, including state lawmakers, argue the delays are frustrating – but cutting federal funding would worsen the situation. Gov. Gavin Newsom has previously vowed to fight back, insisting the project will move forward and federal dollars will be recovered.

Keep reading

French experts fled Newsom’s project, said California was ‘more dysfunctional’ than North Africa…

This story’s a couple years old, but it’s making the rounds again, and the timing couldn’t be better, with Gavin Newsom likely eyeing a 2028 presidential run.

It’s a perfect snapshot of the political dysfunction rotting this country from the inside out, especially in California. Remember the infamous California bullet train debacle? The one that was supposed to be a marvel of American infrastructure but turned into a flaming dung heap of taxpayer waste?

READ MORE: Why are these Biden-era weaponized DOJ cases still going strong under Trump?

Here’s a quick update on the fiasco, which is now a full decade behind schedule and $10 billion over budget.

Kevin Dalton:

Gavin Newsom 2010: California is going to get it right with this new high speed rail. Reality 2024: The $33 BILLION high speed rail from Los Angeles to San Francisco to be completed in 2020 is now a $128 BILLION train from Bakersfield to Merced with no expected date of completion. Trump 2025: Shut it down

Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco, has been trying – and failing – to build this railway for a ridiculous 17 years.

And yet, nobody seems to know where all that money went.

Keep reading