California high speed rail proposed train (Photo: hsr.ca.gov)
Senate Transportation Vice Chair Strickland: Sacramento’s $87 Billion Train Off the Rails, Proposition 1A Promise Broken
‘It’s time to be honest with Californians, cut our losses, and stop writing blank checks’
By Katy Grimes, August 25, 2025 12:01 pm
California’s long-delayed and grossly over-budgeted high-speed rail project could be operating the Central Valley line by 2032, a new report quietly released Friday by the High Speed Rail Authority says. However, rail authority officials also admit that they will need significantly more funding to complete the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles line.
It appears they are scrapping the long touted Bakersfield to Merced line.
“I see clearer now more than ever the potential for this transformational project, one that can reshape the state and our society for the better. I see a future — by 2038 to 2039 — when operations are already connecting the Central Valley to population centers and innovation hubs, offering new career opportunities, economic mobility, affordable housing, and a cleaner environment,” Ian Choudri, Authority CEO said. “A system that is efficient, sustainable, and equitable. A system that connects us to each other and to the world around us.”
Senator Tony Strickland (R-Huntington Beach), Vice Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, criticized the latest supplemental project update from the California High Speed Rail Authority, which outlined a proposed rail line from Gilroy to Palmdale at a cost of $87 billion.
“Sacramento Democrats keep moving the goalpost on this failed project with decades of delays, rising costs, and endless raids on cap-and-trade revenues. The only thing high speed about this bullet train is the speed at which they waste our money. I have serious concerns about voter deception, as the latest Gilroy-to-Palmdale plan may not comply with the legal travel-time requirement outlined in Proposition 1A.
“As the saying goes, ‘The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.’ The unfortunate truth is that this bullet train will never be built as voters approved in 2008. It’s time to be honest with Californians, cut our losses, and stop writing blank checks.”
In 2008, when voters approved Prop. 1A, it included the “Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century” provision of the California’s Streets and Highways Code. According to Section 2704.09 of the code, it sets strict maximum nonstop travel times for each corridor, including the San Francisco-Los Angeles corridor, at 2 hours, 40 minutes. Senate Transportation Vice Chair Strickland stated that if the CHSRA moves forward with its new project proposal, it must return to the voters for approval, as the updated plan does not meet the requirements that were originally approved.
A California native and Navy mom, Katy lives in Sacramento, CA.
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How much “affordable housing” could have been built with the billions of $$ that was mis-spent on the high speed rail? It’s all about grift and graft.
Will there ever be an audit done on this project? Who is profiting?
“…I see a future — by 2038 to 2039 — when operations are already connecting the Central Valley to population centers and innovation hubs, offering new career opportunities, economic mobility, affordable housing,..”
How many people need to go from Palmdale to Gilroy ? Makes as much sense as Merced to Bakersfield.
How long did it take to construct the transcontinental railway?
Asking for a friend….lol
Six years Sir!
Talk about a GRIFT!!
It reminds me of the Kenny Rogers song, The Gambler.
“You gotta know when to hold em, know when to fold them and walk away”
These legislators take our tax dollars and GAMBLE on pie in the sky projects that sound good (this one never did) but are not fairly examined and well executed! . They never walk away they triple down and lose it all! Seems like a grift to me!
As exampled in this quote:
[“I see clearer now more than ever the potential for this transformational project, one that can reshape the state and our society for the better. I see a future — by 2038 to 2039 — when operations are already connecting the Central Valley to population centers ….”]
Are you frickin’ kidding me? Just one more bet, I know I can win this time, says the gambling addict!
Well, I see a California where people will finally come to their senses and see the only ride they have been on is the one where they were all taken for suckers and used for their earnings by these legislatures and government contractors.
Look kids, it’s the choo choo to NOWHERE!
Money would be better spent on a plaque at the train station to nowhere for future schoolchildren to read on a field trip. It would read,:
THE SITE OF THE TRAIN TO NOWHERE. LET THIS BE A REMINDER OF THE WASTE AND FRAUD OF YESTERYEARS GONE BY. NEVER AGAIN!
The California high-speed rail project, originally estimated to cost $33 billion, is now projected to exceed $135 billion due to significant delays and budget overruns. As of 2025, approximately $15.7 billion has already been spent without completing any tracks.
High Speed Rail Authority was always an illegitimate thimble full of obfuscatory make believe, but now functional as another meaningful point of reference, from which to conduct a thorough federal investigation of our corrupt state system.
Would those who threw all that money down the high speed, bottomless pit actually ride the train if it were actually completed? Besides the fact that the youngest member of the legislature might be expired from old age by then, the answer is “probably not.” They tend to avoid the mass transit monstrosities they have created and travel in the manner they would outlaw for everyone else.
This ridiculous train to nowhere is nothing more than a money laundering scheme for Hair-gel Hitler Newsom and the criminal Democrat thug mafia that controls this state. A forensic audit needs to be conducted Hair-gel Hitler Newsom, Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown and of all the players who’ve been involved in this fraud scheme. They all need to be hauled into court and be held accountable. This will probably have to start at the federal level because California courts have been hopelessly corrupted by the criminal Democrat thug mafia.