The California High-Speed Rail Authority has hit back at the Department of Transportation after a new report threatened to withdraw federal funding for the state’s rail project.
The authority stated that the Federal Railroad Administration’s description of the largest high-speed rail project in the country was “inaccurate” and even “outright misleading” at times.
Newsweek reached out to the Federal Railroad Administration via email for comment.
Why It Matters
While the California high-speed rail project continues to make progress throughout the Central Valley, the project is increasingly drawing the ire of the federal government.
President Donald Trump has been a longtime critic of the project, branding it a “waste” and a “green disaster.” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has echoed similar skepticism over the cost and timeline of the project, both of which have ballooned beyond original estimates.
What To Know
This skepticism culminated in a compliance review into the project’s use of two federal grants worth around $4 billion.
The report, published on June 5, said that the project was still $7 billion short, and that there was “no credible strategy in place to secure additional funds.”
“CHSRA is on notice — If they can’t deliver on their end of the deal, it could soon be time for these funds to flow to other projects that can achieve President Trump’s vision of building great, big, beautiful things again,” Duffy said in a statement.
However, the project’s management fired back in their initial response, stating that the project was making significant progress in construction.
“I must also take this opportunity to dispute, in the strongest possible terms, the misleading claim that the Authority has made ‘minimal progress to advance construction’, Authority CEO Ian Choudri said in a letter on Wednesday.
“The Authority’s work has already reshaped the Central Valley. We have built many of the viaducts, overpasses, and underpasses on which the first 119 miles of high-speed rail track will run.”
“In short, FRA’s conclusions are based on an inaccurate, often outright-misleading, presentation of the evidence.”
Trump previously threatened to withdraw federal funding for the project, telling reporters in May: “It’s hundreds of billions of dollars for this stupid project that should have never been built. This government is not going to pay.”
Last week, the California High-Speed Rail Authority announced the completion of 53 structures and almost 70 miles of guideway between Merced and Bakersfield.
The finished structures include the 4,741-foot San Joaquin River Viaduct in Fresno and the Hanford Viaduct in Kings County, which the authority described as the largest structure in the Central Valley for high-speed rail.
What People Are Saying
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, in a statement: “I promised the American people we would be good stewards of their hard-earned tax dollars. This report exposes a cold, hard truth: CHSRA has no viable path to complete this project on time or on budget…Our country deserves high-speed rail that makes us proud – not boondoggle trains to nowhere.”
What Happens Next
The rail project is entering the tracklaying phase this year, with much of its Central Infrastructure already completed.
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