“California is refusing to repay the federal grants it took for its failed high speed rail project, and is demanding more federal dollars to complete what critics are now calling “a train to nowhere.”

The head of California’s high speed rail authority — Brian Kelly — sent two letters to the Federal Railroad Administration this week. In the letters he denied the state violated its federal contract, which gave California $3.5 billion to build high-speed rail from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

Under the terms of the contract, California is required to repay the money if it does not complete the project by a certain deadline.

Earlier this year, Governor Gavin Newsom slammed the brakes on the project due to cost overruns. He also cut the route by more than half…”

www.oann.com/calif-demands-mor...-to-pay-back-grants/

No soup for you. NEXT!

Business bad? Oh, you had a fire? Place got hit by lightning? Pay me

Like they said to me at lunch, pay your bill.

And the fact that CA has not lived up to the agreement probably will not preclude the state from getting federal dollars in the future for other boondoogles.

Fed response should be, Pound sand.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Yellow Jacket,

Hold all the state officials elected and bureaucrat alike, fiscally responsible for the failure. Once they pay back the failed money, we will resume normal funding. Fuck it, do the same with every state.

I accepted A Lot of federal grants in my department. Every one of them included a proviso if we didn't do what we said, we had to give the money back

If I were Trump or Trump's AG, I would give California a choice, give it all back, or we can investigate and if found in favor of the Federal Government, California will pay the full amount plus interest. Please choose. God Bless !!!

There's a federal judge in Hawaii that will back up California. After all, they have to get that high speed rail going before all the airplanes are banned or Hawaii is screwed.

quote:

Originally posted by Muddflap:
There's a federal judge in Hawaii that will back up California. After all, they have to get that high speed rail going before all the airplanes are banned or Hawaii is screwed.

I’m not gonna lie, a high speed rail line in a clear underwater tunnel to Hawaii would be a fascinating view.

I'm perfectly fine with what's been built around Fresno, to stand as a monument to stupid and ridiculous govt projects.

You want what?

The governor announced in his State of the State speech that the scope of the project would be reduced due to funding.

171 miles from Bakersfield to Merced.

Pray tell, what are you going to use to get to and from the two ends of this track that will make sense in terms of time and cost? This area has nothing that would benefit from any usage.

Two words: FUCK CALIFORNIA

Uh-huh. What did I tell you would happen?

That California mismanaged such a huge amount of money should be front page news on every network...but it won’t. Trump should be tweeting this nonstop, reminding Americans that this what the left does with their tax dollars.

quote:

Bakersfield to Merced

The jokes practically write themselves.

Even this truncated section has not been built yet, let alone in operation, correct?

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

quote:

Bakersfield to Merced

The jokes practically write themselves.

Even this truncated section has not been built yet, let alone in operation, correct?

So there might be all of 10 - 30 seats filled every month on a train which has an estimated 150 seats. Of course those towns in between will want on some of the action so this will not be a non-stop trip. Add in the factor that once on the ground (i believe this is accurate), the train cannot travel faster than 55 mph where it is completely clear of people (I am basing this off of the trains which parallels the I-40 in the middle-of-nowhere Arizona and New Mexico not traveling more than 55mph or 60 mph). AND add in the fact the train will be required to slow down where it crosses a road (to 25 mph?).

Who here truly believes the train will take less than the amount of time it takes to drive the distance, cost less than driving, or won't be subsidized up the wahzoo just to make it financially competitive with either flying or driving?

It's an eff'ing waste of money which is stealing ranchers'/farmers' land and politicians and thieves getting rich.

Watch True Detective - Season 2 to get an idea of just how corrupt this train to nowhere is.

That the new governor scaled things way down is good. That the new governor didn’t have the testicular fortitude and clarity of vision to write the whole thing off, blame it on Moonbeam, and just pay the Feds back. I’ve got to imagine that if they build enough to hold onto the Fed’s $3.5B, they will spend more than another $3.5B of the state bond holders’ money (Yes, the taxpayer will pay eventually, but they’ll pay a boatload of interest too. ). At the end of the day the poxy thing will be an albatross around the taxpayers’ necks that makes Amtrak and the USPS look like money printing machines.

The worst thing is he didn’t even have to admit to making a massive screwup spinning this abortion up. He could have blamed the whole thing on Moonbeam and painted himself as saving the state from this festering pile. Sigh...