2/20/2019

CALIFORNIA/TRANSPORTATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “DOT made the first move toward taking back the federal funding given to California for its high-speed rail project, canceling $929 million that had yet to go out and saying it will try to get back $2.5 billion in additional grants that were already sent. Your host has more on the attempt to retrieve the funds, which came after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that the state would significantly scale back the project…A quick fact check: It’s probably too early to call the project ‘failed’ because the current administration has committed to finishing a portion of it, between Bakersfield and Merced, in the next 10 years. As for world record cost overruns — that part might be closer to the truth. The latest projections for the full route, from Los Angeles to San Francisco, were between $77 and $98 billion. From MT’s research it appears that no rail project has ever cost that much to build. Spain’s whole high-speed rail system cost the equivalent of $45 billion. As for the comparison to the wall, Trump has said he wants $5.7 billion, while other estimates say it could actually cost five times that. Either way, you can do the math and see that ‘hundreds of times more expensive’ is an exaggeration.”

Sam Mintz, “Trump twists the knife on California rail setback,” Politico, February 20, 2019 10:00 am