Posted on 10/31/2025 4:31:33 PM PDT by nickcarraway
'You can't just destroy small communities along the way'
An impassioned and oftentimes angry cohort from a small California city turned up ready for a fight this week in opposition to the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s proposal to bisect the town.
On Monday, residents of Shafter, a rural town of 22,000 just about 20 miles northwest of Bakersfield, showed up en masse to provide almost two hours of unanimous testimony opposing the plan to their city council.
Individual pleas from community members often began calmly and then crescendoed into yelling (or even escalated to holding back tears) following a presentation by representatives from the California High-Speed Rail Authority on its latest pitch to physically divide the town with train tracks.
To a person, every resident spoke out against the revised project plan, which differs from the 2018 settlement agreement with the rail authority. The old proposal featured a footprint far different from the one currently on offer. However, the new proposal, rail authority representatives said, would shrink down the construction costs and improve the project’s overall timetable.
SNIP
, underscoring the fact that new leadership and staff, including him, have been working with Gov. Gavin Newsom and the authority’s new CEO, Ian Choudri, who was appointed in August 2024, to reinvigorate the long-overdue project.
Thus far, the project has faced a series of delays, has run over budget — with estimates showing it’s $100 billion in the red — and was defunded by the Donald Trump administration. Here in the Central Valley, the project has been controversial in the past for doing things like exercising eminent domain and then failing to pay back farmers and landowners in a timely manner.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
Elon Musk proposed all kinds of solutions but in the end he just went up and left CA.
“You have to know when to walk away, and know when to run.”
Translation - the graft and grift has slowed down. They will start to use Phraseology like "kick start" "reinvest" and that all-time commie favorite "forward!"
seriously. and it was fully CA’s loss.
The same rail project Rick Scott rejected back in 2011 for Florida. If I remember correctly, the original outlay was for land acquisition and environmental impact studies only. Florida citizens would have been on the hook to actually pay for construction. There was a codicil in the agreement with the feds, that if it didn’t meet ridership goals by a certain date, Florida would have to pay the feds back the total outlay. Governor Scott, rightly so, said no thank you. California took the money…I’m sure they blew the date for ridership, so do we get the money back? Anyways…the AI version of the story:
In February 2011, Governor Rick Scott rejected the use of federal funds to build a high-speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando, citing concerns that the project was too costly for taxpayers, would likely require ongoing state subsidies due to overly optimistic ridership projections, and was a significant financial risk. He officially rejected the federal grant of $2.4 billion, a decision that was upheld by the Florida Supreme Court, and the funds were ultimately redirected to other states.
Rejection of federal funds: Scott formally rejected the $2.4 billion in federal funding that was designated for the project.
Concerns about cost and risk: Scott argued that capital cost overruns could put Florida taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars and that the project would lead to ongoing financial burdens from subsidies. He stated that the risk far outweighed the benefits.
Ridership projections: Scott cited studies that suggested the ridership and revenue projections for the project were overly optimistic, comparing the potential ridership to that of Amtrak’s Acela in the Northeast Corridor.
Supreme Court ruling: Despite a lawsuit filed by some state senators to force his hand, the Florida Supreme Court ruled in favor of Scott’s decision, allowing him to reject the funds.
Funds redirected: As a result of the rejection, the federal government redirected the $2.4 billion to other states for their own high-speed rail projects.
But the Windmill will be built! The question is, when can they sell the horse?
Why does Governor Newsom care where the Choo-Choo go?
I look forward to the AOC primary commercial against Gruesome, while everyone overlooks that AOC would simply seize ALL the rail in Cali to make high-speed rail go, in classic Communist style — simply put the high-speed trains on existing rail lofl...
This, like all CaCaLand programs, is a skimmable bucket of dosh.
Newscum and cronies burned thru $24B on “homeless” programs. Not one was moved off the street except by death.
It won’t be long until we can all go from Bakersfield to Modesto on the high speed rail. There is just so much interesting between the two cities along the way. Orchards..... Mexicans.... more orchards.
1 billion dollars per mile by the time this is done. Talk about a welfare project.
I have not heard any of these clowns explain who is the customer base for this rail? What is it suppose to accomplish?
“Get cars off the road.”
The cities along the route are not particularly use job hubs bringing in long distance commuters.
Anyone who needs to go to San Fran from LA will just fly if it is a day trip. If it is a multi day trip it is not a particularly bad drive. And it you take the PCH it is a beautiful drive. Any tech workers are already working remote. There are no particularly interesting vacation spots along the route. If one is going to visit the Sierra Nevadas (absolutely beautiful) they will pack up the car and drive. It makes no sense to buy four tickets for the family, drive to the station, pay for parking where your car will get broken into), load in to the rail car, then get off the stop, get a taxi to the rental car place, then take the rental car down to Yosemite and reverse when the trip is over.
BUT we all know what the real goal is. Take from the tax payer and launder the money for democrat party pay offs through politically connected cronies.
TRUMP STOPPED THE FEDERAL FUNDING.
WHO IS PAYING FOR THIS TO CONTINUE???
TAKING THE CARS OFF THE ROAD TO MAKE ROOM FOR ALL THE TRUCK DRIVERS WITH ILLEGAL CALIF CDL’S???
WHAT A TRADE OFF.
Was federal funding paying for this stupid train?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.