Following a stunning rebuke by the State Assembly, the board of California’s high-speed rail authority this week put off approving a crucial 2020 business plan, a sign it has agreed to reassess the project’s current blueprint.
from the Central Valley to segments in the Bay Area and Southern California, including the Burbank to Anaheim corridor that the bullet train would eventually use. “I have personally lost all confidence in this group to develop and deliver what they promise,” said Transportation Committee Chairman Jim Frazier before the vote. “From inconsistent cost estimates to impossible program schedules, they provide fictional ridership expectations and exaggerated benefits.”
In a letter on Monday to Rendon, rail authority vice chairman Tom Richards, a Fresno developer, said the authority “shares your concerns as well as those of chair Frazier’s and his colleagues.” Richards pledged to conduct further analysis of the project’s plans. The rail authority will need Rendon and other Assembly members’ support to appropriate about $4.5 billion out of bond funds by early next year for continuing work in the Central Valley, regardless of what position the Senate takes.Get Boiling Point, our newsletter exploring climate change, energy and the environment, and become part of the conversation — and the solution.