California bullet train faces a Trump-sized derailment. Time to accept the harsh truth | Opinion
Donald Trump spent the first weeks of his second term sowing fear, confusion and chaos. The man is completely unfit for office. Let’s get that straight right off the bat.
But with regard to high-speed rail in California, Trump’s verbal muddling couldn’t be more clear. The bullet train will receive no federal funding under his watch, and recent history indicates he’ll try to take back money allocated under the Biden administration.
Trump didn’t actually say either of these things. Rather, he threatened a “big investigation” over what he termed “the worst managed project I think I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen some of the worst.”
From a business tycoon who bankrupted a casino, that’s saying something.
Trump’s understanding of California leaves much to be desired. He has no idea how and where water is conveyed, as proven by his fraudulent waste of 2 billion gallons being stored by Tulare County farmers for summer irrigation.
When it comes to wildfires, Trump is equally misguided. He conveniently ignores the fact that 58% of California’s forests are owned by the federal government – as opposed to the state’s 3% – meaning the management of those lands (or lack thereof) is the responsibility of Washington, D.C., not Sacramento.
About high-speed rail, on the other hand, Trump showed remarkable factual acuity when describing the 171-mile segment currently under construction in Fresno and the central San Joaquin Valley.
“Now it’s not even going to San Francisco and it’s not going to Los Angeles. They made it much shorter,” he said earlier this week. “So now it’s at little places way away from San Francisco and way away from Los Angeles.”
That could be the most accurate statement Trump has made since his hand wasn’t on the Bible while reciting the Oath of Office.
Stopping the bullet train
While Trump lacks both the legal authority and practical means to kill California’s bullet train, he can certainly block its progress. Following 15 years of constant cost and time overruns, the High Speed Rail Authority’s latest stated aim is to begin operations between Merced and Bakersfield by 2030 at the earliest and 2033 at the latest.
To reach that milestone, however, the agency’s 2024 business plan calls for $7 billion in federal investment over the next five years. Money needed to construct four stations and a maintenance facility, lay track, erect the overhead catenary system of electrical wiring and purchase the actual trains.
Zero chance of that happening under Trump, leaving Sacramento as the project’s sole provider (via climate bonds and cap-and-trade funds) at a time when the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office is forecasting years of growing budget deficits.
In other words, the financial outlook is bleak. Without continued federal funding, high-speed rail will soon grind to a halt. That’s not something people like myself who believed in the original vision of a Los Angeles to San Francisco via Fresno bullet train want to hear, but it’s the reality we must accept.
This is also true for Fresno politicians including Mayor Jerry Dyer that have pinned much of their hopes for downtown revitalization on a bustling station at Mariposa and H Streets. Time to let that go, or at least greatly downsize expectations.
While no public denouncements are required or necessary, Dyer and others should be working behind the scenes with the state and federal representatives to ensure Fresno doesn’t become a graveyard of high-speed rail construction sites.
All the partially-built overpasses and tunnels within the city limits should be finished and functional for future use by Amtrak, and no new projects should be undertaken unless there’s money to see them through to completion. Bullet train or not, the city must be made whole again.
For as long as Trump occupies the Oval Office, high-speed rail in California is dead.
No point in pretending otherwise.
