FRESNO, CA (KMJ) Costs continue to rise and so does anger among critics of the controversial High Speed Rail Project.
In an interview on KMJ Tuesday, Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) called for an investigation into the struggling bullet train. “I think there’s corruption going on here”, Patterson told KMJ host Chris Daniel.
“They’ve been essentially making it up as they go along. We now know they made up the 90 percent figure on ridership”, Patterson said.
At a hearing in Sacramento Wednesday, HSR officials issued a new report (see below) detailing how the rail line in the Central Valley is projected to rise by nearly $2 billion. The estimated cost of the entire project was recently put at $77 billion, but Gov. Gavin Newsom has since put that on hold. Newsom wants only to to focus on the Central Valley leg which is planned to link Bakersfield and Merced.
After the hearing, Patterson offered more critical comments: “This report and this project is nothing more than a shell game. The Chief Operating Officer of the project is on the record saying the tracks from Merced to Bakersfield will be slow speed trains on “plain rail.” Today they are promising it will be high-speed. They continue to make it up as they go along and I don’t trust the High Speed Rail Authority any more.
This report says the goal is to move Amtrak onto the high-speed rail track and let them operate it with a whole lot of government subsidy in an effort get around the Prop 1A bond language. They have no other options because they know perfectly well they will need subsidies to operate but the bond language is very clear that this is forbidden.
“It’s time for the Governor to halt any more funding for this project. The bottom line is this project is running out of money and they know it. Between now and whenever that last dollar is spent, they will continue to make up fantasies in an attempt to fool us all,” Patterson said.
Assemblyman Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield) issued a call to dump the entire project following the report: “This report reconfirms what I have said before, the High Speed Rail project needs to be scrapped entirely because it will continue to be plagued with cost overruns, delays, and management failures. The Governor cannot overlook these structural problems with rhetoric. We need to deal with reality. Again and again, every new report continues to show major cost overruns and taxpayers continue to be punished by Sacramento’s gross mismanagement—taxpayers are being asked to pay more and in return, and they are getting a conventional slower train that does not resemble what was told to voters 2008. The bottom line is that we need to either scrap this project entirely or give voters a chance to re-vote on this failed project.”
The current estimate to complete the line between Merced and Bakersfield is $20.4 billion.
READ THE 2029 HSR PROJECT REPORT HERE:
Lenny Mendonca, Authority Board of Directors Chair writes:
California’s High-Speed Rail project is at a crossroads,
and this 2019 Project Update Report lays out how the
Authority plans to move the project forward in the
months and years ahead.
For years, the idea of a high-speed rail line connecting
the two most populous regions of the state, through
the Central Valley, was championed by political and
civic leaders. Then, after a vote of the people, a project
was put forward and carried out by Republican and
Democratic administrations. That project, California
High-Speed Rail, has created tens of thousands of jobs,
supported hundreds of small businesses, contributed to
$3 billion in wages and $7.6 billion in economic output
– much of it in the Central Valley. Voters approved the
project because it was our best – and perhaps only –
chance to connect Northern and Southern California in
an environmentally sound way.
But any assessment of the history of this project
underscores the deeply entrenched challenges that it
has faced. The initial cost projections and timelines were
simply unrealistic. In 2008, voters were told the project
would cost $45 billion. Now, the actual cost appears
closer to $80 billion. The federal government chose that
the project begin in the Central Valley nearly a decade
ago when it deemed that segment worthy of federal
funding.
Having spent more than a decade and billions of dollars,
high-speed rail is under construction – progress you can
see throughout the Central Valley. And in this document,
you will find a report that focuses the limited resources
the state has identified to get a working section that can
demonstrate the viability of the broader project.
Some have suggested the state should walk away from
the more than a decade of..
…collaboration and progress
that Republican and Democratic administrations and
a generation of legislative leaders have made to bring
the project this far. Such a path would leave California,
having spent $5 billion, with nothing but lawsuits, job
losses and billions of IOU’s with nothing to show for our
debts.
Given those two options, the path forward is clear. The
California High-Speed Rail Authority (Authority) will
continue its efforts toward getting a working section
completed in a responsible and transparent way.
Already, the Newsom administration has made the
project more transparent and accountable to the
people of this state. During his first month in office,
the Governor demanded change orders, cost overruns
and travel expenses be made publicly available and
published on the high-speed rail website. In his May
Budget Revise proposal, the Governor will announce
that critical oversight and management functions will be
brought back in-house, replacing consultants with state
staff. The Authority will also initiate an office-by-office
review of other functions more appropriately performed
by state officials — not private consultants.
In keeping with that commitment to transparency, this
update estimates the cost for the Bakersfield-Fresno-Merced section, regional bookend investments and
Phase I (San Francisco to Anaheim) environmental
clearance at $20.4 billion, all while acknowledging that
— as with any major infrastructure project – those costs
could rise with unpredictable developments.
This report lays out the path forward for the Merced-Fresno-Bakersfield line, a building block project that
matches the available funding. The line will provide a
significant economic boost to fast-growing and dynamic
parts of our state, anchoring an ambitious economic
development vision for rural resilience in the Central
Valley.
Further, the Authority is committed to bookend
investments in both Northern and Southern California
and completion of environmental work for the length of
the San Francisco to Los Angeles/Anaheim corridor.
And all of this is done with the goal of delivering a
working section, demonstrating the project’s feasibility
and attracting other funding to complete the line north
to south.
Independent, third-party analysis by the Early Train
Operator confirms the decision to focus first on the
Merced-Fresno-Bakersfield line as the best option to
increase ridership and get an operational segment up
and running.That building block approach is what this report details
today.
Respectfully,
Lenny Mendonca
Authority Board of Directors Chair
