California's Over Budget High-Speed Rail Project Needs Even More Cash

Assemblyman Vince Fong joins John and Ken at 3pm today to discuss California's high-speed rail boondoggle.

California lawmakers must decide if they want to pursue even more federal funding to continue the state's high-speed rail project. In 2008 CA voters passed Prop 1A which approved the project and at that time the high-speed rail was estimated to be completed by 2018 for $33 billion dollars. Eventually, that estimate rose to $128 billion with a completion date of 2033. The High-Speed Rail Authority now says there is no estimated completion date.

The project is attempting to complete Phase 1 which would connect San Francisco to Los Angeles via high-speed rail. Assemblyman Fong has seen firsthand the difficulties that the project is experiencing in Central California.

“I live in this community, and I’ve seen the difficulties and chaos from this project. I’m seeing the destruction,” Fong said. “I would make the argument right now that even though we’re fatigued … we stop this project and put resources to other uses.” 

Over the past two years, the Rail Authority has not been able to receive much federal funding. Out of the $1.6 billion they have requested from the federal government, it was only able to secure $50 million dollars.