As Republican legislators in California, we were pleased to hear you announce your investigation of the California High-Speed Rail Authority (HSRA).
A day prior to your remarks, the High-Speed Rail Office of the Inspector General, issued a scathing report that the HSRA “has not completed a risk analysis that would allow it better to determine whether its plan for completing the M-B (the Merced-to-Bakersfield) segment is realistic and achievable.” The M-B segment is the first section – a priority for the Authority.
This begs the question: Why has the HSRA deliberately not completed a risk analysis of a plan that has and will continue to cost taxpayers billions and billions of dollars?
The Inspector General further asserts, “It is increasingly unlikely that the Authority will complete the M-B segment” on schedule.
Promised to be completed by 2020 with a price tag of $34 billion, HSRA’s projected budget ballooned to over $128 billion. Voters were told that more than 20 percent of the project would be privately funded. Instead, taxpayers face the reality of single-handedly funding massively inflated costs for a project that many will never use or see completed.
The HSRA has spent $13.7 billion in total, including $1.6 billion on professional marketing materials and consultants. The only partially completed segment so far connects a field and an orchard and has cost $1.4 billion for 22 miles of raised dirt; along with 11 overpass structures. Zero feet of track have been laid to date.
By all metrics, the High-Speed Rail is a colossal failure.
A former chair of HSRA’s peer review group testified before the Legislature that the project cannot be completed with the funding available.
The $1 billion the state spends on the High-Speed Rail each year would be better spent on protecting lives, homes, and jobs against wildfire and other natural disasters as well as securing water infrastructure for our economy to grow.
We owe it to Californians to carefully examine the viability of this project and hold the HSRA accountable for its mismanagement and broken promises. We stand with you in your forthcoming investigation of the High-Speed Rail project.
