No, not really. I don’t think the contractors have it as bad on Amtrak either I think the Big consulting firms got nailed with contracts and DOGE seems to have bogged down the last month. Not sure what happened, they went from Blitzkrieg to tree sloth.
According to today’s Trains NewsWire, FRA and Amtrak agree with the new secretary of DOT that now the Texas Central HSR is a waste of public money. They are rescinding a $64 million grant. Yet nothing about the Brightline West $3 billion grant/loan/activity bonds?
Happy to hear that as Texas Central was more an obstacle to HSR development. Texas Central fled the state about 2 years ago and just left a skeleton crew behind. Not sure why Amtrak saw a shell of a company with a significant tax liability outstanding as a project. Would be curious how much money Amtrak spend on this. Looks like they are going to lose funding from the State of Texas for the Heartland Flyer in two months as well. Maybe North Texas Council of Governments will come to the rescue again…maybe not. There might still be criminal prosecutions with the Texas Central project. Texas Legislature was threatening supenoas last I heard.
The funds for Texas Central were never committed as almost the entire staff of the company had disappeared quite some time ago. Amtrak knew this and still jumped into the project with just the very, very few staff that remained.
Brightline West has a lot better history than Texas Central does. Brightline overall would have done a far better job with appeasing in state interests and land owners.
New plan to accelerate California high-speed rail construction deserves attention, support
Construction will begin on a line running northwest into the Silicon Valley that will plug into the Caltrain commuter rail system that connects to San Francisco. Construction will also start on a line heading south into northern L.A. County that connects with Metrolink commuter rail service to downtown Los Angeles, as well as the High Desert Corridor and Brightline West high-speed railsystems running northeast to Las Vegas.
Added here because the CAHSR thread is not available.
Musk told Tesla investors on Tuesday that he would scale back his efforts at Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to a day or two a week starting sometime next month.
Another big RIF comming up June 1st. I don’t really pay attention even though I get the emails as if I am a Fed. I believe they are all done with the cuts by start of next fiscal year (Oct 1st)…so with the customary leave package they should be told or notified by June 1st. They said it is ongoing after that but I seriously doubt it via DOGE, they have a steep budget reduction in FY 2026 across the whole Federal Budget. I have no idea how Amtrak is impacted yet but you should expect 25% or slightly more. I don’t think they will zero it out but we’ll see.
DOGE is largely finished in my view with cutting people…all that will be terminated should be told by April 30th as they are shooting for 30 days on Federal Payroll after notification for terminations. People that accept the buyout get 30 days on Federal Payroll plus 3 month admin leave. So last cut wraps up EOM September. All guessing based on what I hear and have observed at my level. Not in the inner circle of trust. So if they start up again in 2026, not my fault.
They cut very deeply. I think the figure I heard was 35% total in the agency I support. Which is how I came up with the Amtrak estimate % above. They have no direct input into Amtrak but I am guessing Congress will take it’s cue from DOGE in part with the budget.
[posted here since the CAHSR page was locked]
Milestone
It’s a sad day for the prospects of CAHSR that argument with the City of Millbrae over urban integration of the station facilities has to happen at all. Of course no one actually mentions when construction in actual Millbrae, let alone connection of the SF area to running HSR trains to that section in the Central Valley will be…
Some progress is better than a roadblock.
Yes, but congratulating someone on being stabilized in the ER after having shot themself in the foot is not really ‘progress’…
Yeah, you’re probably right but you might want to work on your analogies!
Why? I thought that summed up what had likely happened with Millbrae remarkably accurately. At least backtranslating from all the weasel words and politico-speak in the Newsweek story…
Actually, I Like that analogy, I Hope that you don’t mind if I steal it, I won’t claim credit for it though.
Was that your own, or do I need to credit more than you?
Doug
I actually went through several versions as I thought about what had likely happened between the HSR authority and likely its consultants and the Millbrae local government to produce the particular actions reported.
You’re more than welcome to use it, but please remember to nudge the grammar to keep the sense right.
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So, speculative journalism, i.e. you made stuff up to fit your agenda.
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And what ‘agenda’ might that be?
I had the impression, from reading the Newsweek story, that the original “controversy” (which was carefully, almost painfully glossed over) might have been the CAHSR attempting to dictate to Millbrae how they were going to come through, perhaps for some extended time. For the resolution to be touted in the story as some milestone in the progress of the high-speed line’s actual buildout is laughable.
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It seems you choose to not summarize objectively without editorializing [“painfully” “touted” “laughable”]. Such is also the sorry state of writing in media today.
Obviously you choose to ridicule CAHSR without actually saying in simple language. “Plausible deniability” at its best!!
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I thought it was clear by now that I find very little that is not risible about CAHSR.
One could be more specific as to what is wrong with the CAHSR, such as deficient in planning and budgeting, poor engineering, etc. Some might find the whole project tear-jerking or aggravating rather than ridiculous.
Oh, I could be very, very specific. At very, very great length. It would probably be shorter to list the things they have done right, and far shorter to list the things done on time and in budget.
The fundamental assumptions that were ‘committed to’ at the very beginning of the project included that the fares would not be ratcheted up to pay for actual costs, but that taxpayers would not be put on the hook to subsidize either construction or operation. What we now have, at the end of a very long string of ‘consultant’ studies, is a single-track line that would be operating as a glorified interurban in the Central Valley, with little if anything done on the hard part of accessing the Los Angeles area at sustained high speed, and the San Francisco approach – including through Millbrae – not only a diversion but a slow one sharing track with the electrified Caltrans; the last I heard, it would not even run at 110mph HrSR much of the way. That might not be so bad if the spine of the system had actually been built expeditiously. But today it would be a joke if the situation weren’t so appallingly expensive… and getting far more so before some excuse of a train runs over their excuse for a track.
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