Biden and high-speed rail

Scott Wiener

It's good to see no mention of the dumb California high-speed rail project in Biden's American Jobs Program. 

And there's this in the LA Times:

Amid the bounty of funding, the biggest transportation project in the nation, the $100-billion, high-speed rail project, will have to compete for funding with lesser-known proposals in California. Its construction problems, cost growth and delays have muddied its future. “The demands for political support from other programs are significant,” [Rep. John]Garamendi said. “The funding for high-speed rail must contend with the other programs. [It] will get funding, but it will not get funding that beggars the other projects.”

....The California bullet train has pushed for a big piece of the money. Supporters suggested the Biden administration support $40 billion for the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco line, enough to potentially bore tunnels through three mountain chains, but the proposal went nowhere, according to individuals with knowledge of the talks....

Good to see that the nutty tunnel proposal was rejected. (See $6 billion SF tunnel to get the $100 billion train to the $2 billion bus station.)

Good to see too that state Democrats are increasingly skeptical about the project:

Indeed, the bullet train faces a tough fight even securing a legislative appropriation of $4.1 billion in its own bond funds it is seeking this year for its Central Valley construction plan. The California Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution last year that would block some of the planned spending in the Central Valley as a prelude to shifting money to Bay Area and Southern California segments of the project.

Support in the House transportation committee is uncertain. Committee Democrats Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) and Marc DeSaulnier (D-Concord) both cast votes as California senators against appropriating money to the bullet train in 2012, against the wishes of former Gov. Jerry Brown....

Rob Rogers