California scrapping plan for $77B high-speed rail from LA to San Francisco

By Brittany De LeaPublished February 12, 2019U.S. EconomyFOXBusiness


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CaliforniaOpens a New Window. is scrapping current plans to build a $77 billion high-speed rail line from Los Angeles to California due to high costs.

The state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, said during his State of the State address on Tuesday that the proposal would “cost too much” and “take too long.”

“Right now there simply isn’t a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to L.A.,” he added.

The project was supported by Newsom’s predecessor Gov. Jerry Brown. It is estimated that it would have been completed by 2033. It is projected the train would have transported more than 120,000 riders per day, at speeds of up to 200 mph.

Instead, Newsom said he intends to build a high-speed line in California’s Central Valley – from Merced to Bakersfield. The governor acknowledged that critics might call this “a train to nowhere,” which he called wrong.

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison previously said the initiative could become one of the state’s “great embarrassments” during an interview with FOX Business. In his opinion, in the future people are going to be taking autonomous electric cars from Los Angeles to San Francisco “at a tiny fraction of the cost,” affording them the leisure to leave whenever they please.

He also noted the project would be "astronomical."

A spokesperson for Ellison and Oracle declined FOX Business’ request for comment on Tuesday’s news. The business leader previously said he held conversations with former California Gov. Jerry Brown regarding his concerns.

Meanwhile, entrepreneur and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is working on his own high-speed tunnel in Los Angeles via his tunnel digging venture the Boring Company. In December, he unveiled demonstrations of a tunnel, which aims to ease local traffic congestion.

A spokesperson for Tesla did not return FOX Business’ request for comment on Tuesday’s news.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/...-san-francisco