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Online mystery-ak

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California got nearly $7B from feds for high-speed rail — but never laid any track, bombshell report
« on: June 04, 2025, 03:07:46 pm »
 California got nearly $7B from feds for high-speed rail — but never laid any track, bombshell report shows
By Josh Christenson   
Published June 4, 2025
Updated June 4, 2025, 1:49 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened Wednesday to pull federal grants for California’s High-Speed Rail Authority after it spent nearly $7 billion in taxpayer funds over a decade and a half without laying a single foot of track.

In a 310-page report, Duffy detailed the missed deadlines and stretched budget for the long-running project — and gave the Golden State’s high-speed rail office until July 11 to respond or lose out on around $4 billion in grants.

“This report exposes a cold, hard truth: CHSRA has no viable path to complete this project on time or on budget,” he said.

Originally passed as a ballot initiative in 2008, the 800-mile rail line was supposed to be completed on a $33 billion budget by 2020 and stretch around 500 miles from Sacramento south to San Diego.

By 2019, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that there was no path forward after costs ballooned to $77.3 billion and the project was drawn down to a 171-mile section between Merced and Bakersfield.

CHSRA officials later applied for $8 billion in grants from former President Joe Biden’s 2021 infrastructure law to help complete that abbreviated Central Valley Segment.

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https://nypost.com/2025/06/04/us-news/california-got-7b-from-feds-for-high-speed-rail-but-never-laid-any-track-report/
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Offline Fishrrman

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Re: California got nearly $7B from feds for high-speed rail — but never laid any track, bombshell re
« Reply #1 on: June 04, 2025, 06:10:09 pm »
See the remarkably similar story of the "Chicago-New York Air Line" in the mid 1900's:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_%E2%80%93_New_York_Electric_Air_Line_Railroad

the dream:


The reality (what became of it all):
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Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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Re: California got nearly $7B from feds for high-speed rail — but never laid any track, bombshell re
« Reply #2 on: June 04, 2025, 08:46:46 pm »
Why is a federal priority to fund a rail project wholly within a state?

Exhibit A for why we need to put a machete to federal spending.
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Online Hoodat

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Re: California got nearly $7B from feds for high-speed rail — but never laid any track, bombshell re
« Reply #3 on: June 04, 2025, 08:50:15 pm »
Quote from: IsailedawayfromFR on June 04, 2025, 08:46:46 pm
Exhibit A for why we need to put a machete to federal spending.

You got that right.
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Online Hoodat

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Re: California got nearly $7B from feds for high-speed rail — but never laid any track, bombshell re
« Reply #4 on: June 04, 2025, 08:52:57 pm »
Quote
“To secure substantial Federal funding, CHSRA represented that it could connect major metropolitan cities in California, but can now only deliver a system that is reduced substantially and delayed significantly, which may connect two random endpoints.”

This is what is known as 'fraud'.
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If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.     -Dwight Eisenhower-

"The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government."     -Ayn Rand-

Offline corbe

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Re: California got nearly $7B from feds for high-speed rail — but never laid any track, bombshell re
« Reply #5 on: June 04, 2025, 09:29:43 pm »
   That's carveout for pelousi in previous fiscal year budgets.
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Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: California got nearly $7B from feds for high-speed rail — but never laid any track, bombshell re
« Reply #6 on: June 04, 2025, 10:31:08 pm »
I don't know who or what got laid (it wasn't rail), but the taxpayers sure got screwed!
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Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

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Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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Re: California got nearly $7B from feds for high-speed rail — but never laid any track, bombshell re
« Reply #7 on: June 06, 2025, 01:23:50 pm »
Quote from: Smokin Joe on June 04, 2025, 10:31:08 pm
I don't know who or what got laid (it wasn't rail), but the taxpayers sure got screwed!
We all saw what you did there
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Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: California got nearly $7B from feds for high-speed rail — but never laid any track, bombshell re
« Reply #8 on: June 06, 2025, 01:25:51 pm »
Quote from: IsailedawayfromFR on June 06, 2025, 01:23:50 pm
We all saw what you did there
Yeah, it was kinda obvious.  :shrug:

Not like spending 8 billion on charging stations, and hardly anyone getting plugged in.  :whistle:

I'm seeing a pattern here...

The great railroads were built by private interests.
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How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis
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