“INVESTS”: Biden Invests $3 billion in California’s High Speed Rail.
The money will help buy six electric trains and bankroll construction and design of a train station and other facilities and projects along a 171-mile stretch of rail line in California’s central valley—far from either Los Angeles or San Francisco. So far this year the California bullet train project has also received nearly $230 million in U.S. taxpayer money through the 2021 federal infrastructure bill.
Biden’s fresh money infusion comes as the high speed rail project already has a projected $100 billion deficit after spending more than $11 billion. California Democrats and Republicans alike have blasted the enterprise as costly with little to show for the time and money spent so far. California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) has criticized the project as overly expensive and time-intensive and proposed a scale-back—an idea he later said was taken out of context by the media.
“Only the Biden administration would look at a project that’s years behind schedule and tens of billions over budget and think ‘that’s a good place to invest another $3 billion,’” said Republican assemblyman James Gallagher, the state assembly’s minority leader.
Somebody’s getting the money but, judging by the zero miles of track laid, it sure isn’t people with any genuine interest in building railroads.