Jim Costa, Alex Padilla optimistic about securing federal money for California bullet train
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, got a firsthand look at construction progress on California’s beleaguered high-speed rail project on Friday, accompanying Rep. Jim Costa on a tour of the new viaduct that spans the San Joaquin River at the Fresno-Madera county line.
Padilla, who was appointed to fill the California senate seat vacated when Kamala Harris became vice president under President Joe Biden, said he’s been a supporter of high-speed rail since he served in the California State Senate in 2006. He said he’s hopeful for changes to secure a major infusion of federal funds for the bullet-train effort through several transportation and infrastructure packages being negotiated now between Congress and the Biden administration.
In the shadow of the 4,700-foot-long elevated structure just east of Highway 99 and the Union Pacific Railroad freight tracks, California High-Speed Rail Authority board chairman Tom Richards, a Fresno developer, told Padilla and Costa that federal help is sorely needed for the project that faces an acute shortage of money for ongoing construction beyond the work taking place on the route in Fresno, Madera, Kings, Tulare, and Kern counties.
“We are at a point now where we are looking for a tremendous amount of support from both the state of California and the (federal) government,” Richards said. “It is a challenge politically, and everybody is used to that. What we know is, we’ve got to win because this is for the state of California.”
For 13 years – ever since California voters approved the $9.9 billion high-speed rail bond measure Proposition 1A in 2008 – the bullet train effort has been a political football. The wrangling intensified after the Obama administration awarded about $3.6 billion in federal stimulus and rail improvement grants to the California High-Speed Rail Authority in 2010 and 2011 for construction in the central San Joaquin Valley.
The Valley segment between Merced and Bakersfield is billed as a “backbone” for a statewide line connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles with electric trains traveling at up to 220 mph.
The project has been plagued by delays and cost increases since construction began in 2014. In 2019, the Federal Railroad Administration, under the Trump administration, canceled a grant of almost $1 billion for the project. That move was reversed earlier this year as a lawsuit filed by the state over the cancellation was settled with the Biden administration.
Padilla acknowledged the reversal of the grant cancellation but added that “it’ll take a lot more than that to keep this project going.’
“Many other countries in the world have functioning high-speed rail,” the senator said. With a growing population and increasing traffic congestion in California and nationwide, “we can’t see a future for California and the country without high-speed rail. That’s a given.”
“Once you accept that, then you also know the longer you wait, the more it’s going to cost and the longer it’s going to take,” Padilla added.
Costa, a Democrat from Fresno, thanked Padilla for becoming the first U.S. senator to visit an active high-speed rail construction site in California. Costa added that he believes he, Padilla, and other members of the state’s congressional delegation, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, “are going to make a formidable team to make sure we get the necessary funding to make sure we move high-speed rail forward.”
Costa and Padilla acknowledged the political challenges of a badly divided and partisan Congress. “Of course, all big things are difficult legislatively,” Costa said. He noted that three prior presidents with whom he’s worked – George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump – “weren’t willing to put the money up to get the job done.”
In trying to revive the country’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden “is willing to do so,” Costa added. “We have a window here that did not exist previously, and we have a president who wants to make it happen.”
Padilla said that even in a Senate where there is a 50-50 division among Democrats and Republicans, there is the prospect of bipartisanship on infrastructure and transportation spending.
As a member of the Senate Budget Committee, Padilla was also involved in developing another $3.5 trillion infrastructure spending package unveiled this week that includes money for high-speed rail.
“We know the numbers are there; we know the will is there,” he said. “We’ve got to get the language right, not just for transportation (but) for high-speed rail specifically, and to make sure California’s at the table.”
“I feel good about it,” Padilla added.
This story was originally published July 17, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Jim Costa, Alex Padilla optimistic about securing federal money for California bullet train."
