President Donald Trump condemned California’s high-speed rail project as the “worst-managed project” he has ever seen.
“And one of the things I want to investigate rapidly, because I’ve never seen anything to this extent, the train that’s being built between Los Angeles and San Francisco, is the worst-managed project I think I have ever seen,” Trump told reporters. “And I’ve seen some of the worst. Billions and billions, hundreds of billions of dollars over budget. In fact, I read where you could take every single person that was going to go on the train and get the finest limousine service in the world, and take them back and forth in limousines, and have hundreds of billions of dollars left over. It is the worst thing — and we are going to start an investigation in that, because it’s not possible.”
“I built for a living, and I built on time, on budget. It’s impossible that something could cost that much. And now it’s not even going to San Francisco, and it’s not going to Los Angeles. They made it much shorter. So now it’s at little places, way away from San Francisco, and way away from Los Angeles. No — we are going to start a big investigation in that, because I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The high-speed rail has 171 miles under construction, according to social media.
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) introduced a bill that would eliminate federal funding for the high-speed rail. The bill would “prohibit the use of Federal financial assistance for a certain high-speed rail development project in the State of California, and for other purposes.”
“California’s high-speed rail project has failed because of political ineptitude, and there is no plausible scenario where the cost to federal or state taxpayers can be justified,” he said. “Our share of federal transportation funding should go towards real infrastructure needs, such as improving roads that rank among the worst in the country.”
