Newsom's California rail project now expected to cost $126B, official admits, with still no tracks laid
California's delayed, over-budget high-speed train from Los Angeles to San Francisco is running fast in only one direction: Rising costs to even get rolling, which are now estimated to be...
By Fox News · Fox News
California's delayed, over-budget high-speed train from Los Angeles to San Francisco is running fast in only one direction: Rising costs to even get rolling, which are now estimated to be $126 billion. "Today, we estimate with the right optimization just over $125 billion," California High Speed Rail Authority board member Anthony Williams told CBS's "60 Minutes" on Sunday. "I think $126 billion is the current estimate for that." That is nearly four times the $33 billion price tag presented to voters in 2008, making the long-delayed project a black eye for Democratic-run California, derided as the latest political example of "waste" in deep-blue America and a "train to nowhere." "We’re now in 2026: There are no trains; there’s no track laid; it was a complete bait and switch," Rep. Vince Fong, R-Calif., told "60 Minutes," saying the project "needs to stop." NEWSOM TOUTS CALIFORNIA’S NUMEROUS LEGAL FIGHTS WITH TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IN FINAL STATE OF THE STATE "The California high-speed rail nightmare is the probably quintessential example of government waste and mismanagement." California’s long-troubled high-speed rail project is facing renewed scrutiny after state Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin acknowledged that many of its critics have a point. "There were mistakes made," Omishakin told CBS. "Some of the criticisms on this project, I think, are very fair." TRUMP ADMIN UNCOVERS 'STAGGERING' $8.6 BILLION IN SUSPECTED CALIFORNIA SMALL BUSINESS FRAUD "I don't think the voters fully understood, and neither did we in the public sector, what it was going to take to actually get this project delivered," Omishakin added. Taking aim at California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom , President Donald Trump called California's project "the worst cost overrun, I've ever seen," a statement he has in the past reserved for Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell's Federal Reserve Building in Washington, D.C. "This administration is working to usher in a Golden Age of Transpo…