Early Thursday morning, Federal Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was in Los Angeles to share some bad news about the controversial California High-Speed Rail project. Duffy is demanding a compliance review for the project and said he has seen little progress in terms of construction timeline and budget management.
“I think there’s a demand by the American taxpayer to make sure the money is being spent well, and to make sure that the California voting population, the California taxpayer, understands even though they may be excited about this project, the project’s not going to happen,” said Duffy. “There is no timeline in which you’re going to have a High-Speed Rail that goes from L.A. to San Francisco, that timeline does not exist.”
Duffy has doubts that the estimates should actually be funded.
“And so I think it’s incumbent upon us as responsible legislators and those in the federal government to take a hard look at how we spend our money. And if California wants to continue to invest that’s fine, but we, in the Trump administration, are going to take a look at whether this project is worthy of continual investment,” said Duffy.
He claimed the investment projection tripled to a whopping $106 billion since the project was approved by voters back in 2008. The original completion date was set for 2020, but has been stalled for several years. Duffy said the lack of progress within the project has even caught the attention of President Trump.
“The President has called for an investigation...And so I’m gonna exercise my authority as the secretary of transportation, I’m gonna direct the Federal Railroad Administration, or FRA, to initiate a compliance review of funding to the California High-Speed Rail Authority,” said Duffy.
He said the review will help determine “whether billions of dollars in taxpayer money should remain committed to California’s High-Speed Rail.”
Several protestors disrupted the conference, chanting their support for the high-speed railway.
Federal funding is crucial to the project and without it, the rail may not ever see the light of day.