Deadlines loom for California bullet train in its search for new funding
As Congress fitfully moves ahead with the largest infrastructure program in recent American history, the California bullet train is still trying to sort out where it will fit in.
A roughly $1 trillion bipartisan package, which has passed the Senate but faces challenges in the House, makes no mention of the state’s high-speed rail effort, the nation’s largest infrastructure project.
Rep. John Garamendi, a California Democrat and senior member for the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, said he is assessing what language in the lengthy bill may help the project.
“We are trying to figure out how it might affect California,” he said. “There is no carve-out for California that we can find, but one word can change that.”
At best, the legislation could fund tens of billions of dollars in new passenger rail programs, but much of that is either already dedicated to other states or will be subject to fierce future competition among all the states.
And whether a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package that is moving through Congress might contain vast pockets of buried money for rail project is even less clear.
At a board meeting Wednesday, Brian Kelly, chief executive of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, said he has identified six potential programs that will get additional funding from the infrastructure bill that could help fund the California bullet train. In total the programs contain about $21 billion in new money on top of previously appropriated funds.
“There is great opportunity before us here,” he said, adding that the future funding should become clear by the end of the month.
All of the $21 billion, which is embedded in intercity rail expansion, safety and grade crossing programs, could be up for grabs by other states, as well as competing rail programs across California, including a private effort to build a high-speed train to Las Vegas.
If the state were to get a share proportional to its population, it could see about $2.5 billion of the new money and potentially $4.3 billion of already appropriated money.
Even a portion of that would help stabilize the bullet train construction as the existing $22.8-billion budget faces growing costs that could exceed the available funding. Almost all of that money would go to a 171mile operating system between Merced and Bakersfield.