CALIFORNIA (July 23, 2021)—A key block of California lawmakers is feuding with the Biden administration over the state’s high-speed rail endeavor, arguing that conditions of a restored federal grant lock the project into what the group sees as an outdated technology for powering the bullet train.
In a recent letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, California Speaker Anthony Rendon and 17 other Assembly Democrats say the federal grant unnecessarily directs California to use overhead electrical lines to propel the trains down their tracks.
Instead, Rendon wants California to keep open the option of powering locomotives with batteries or fuel cells, arguing that the switch could help the state avoid the high cost of installing overhead lines, a system used worldwide since the 1960s.
The Rendon letter — sent to Buttigieg late last month — comes amid an increasingly intense standoff between Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s administration and the Assembly leader on design and funding for the nation’s largest single transportation project. Newsom wants California to stick to his plan of building the first segment of the high-speed rail line in the Central Valley, but Rendon and his Assembly allies want to divert the funds to bullet train segments in Southern California and the Bay Area, and fears installation of electric lines will close off that prospect.
The high speed rail will make California one of the most smart cities in the Nation. “The high-speed rail system will consist of up to 24 stations when completed, connecting the major population centers in the North and South through California’s Central Valley. The High-Speed Rail Authority has already identified several potential station locations throughout the state; however, final station locations will not be selected until environmental work has been completed in for each project section in which the station is located, according to California officials.
During the then Trump’s administration “The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced that it was terminating $929 million in federal grants for the high-speed rail project. The FRA said the state “repeatedly failed to comply with the terms of the FY10 agreement and has failed to make reasonable progress on the project. Additionally, California has abandoned its original vision of a high-speed passenger rail service connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles, which was essential to its applications for FRA grant funding.”
In February 2020, the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) announced that the cost estimate for the project was $80.3 billion.
On June 10, 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation had restored $929 million in grant funding for the high-speed rail project. He said, “We thank the Biden–Harris Administration and Secretary Buttigieg for their partnership on this important step forward
China is the world’s leader in high speed rails.
Read full story in the LATimes.com.
Source: LA Times contributed to the article.