Senator Ted Gaines (R-El Dorado) issued the following statement regarding recent Senate Transportation & Housing Committee oversight hearing on the updated High-Speed Rail business plan:

“High-Speed Rail is on pace to be the most colossal waste of taxpayer money in California history and needs to be stopped before our citizens take an unprecedented fleecing.

“The initial $33 billion total cost estimate has already ballooned to more than $60 billion, and the story is about to get worse. The California Rail Authority is facing potential cost overruns of $400 million dollars on just the first 29 miles of the 500+ mile project. And this is on the flat and sparse Central Valley. What will the cost overruns be in the infinitely more crowded and complex Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego?

“I’m incredibly disappointed that during today’s oversight hearing, where legislators and bullet train representatives went back and forth on the new timelines, routes and funding proposals, there was zero opportunity for anyone in opposition to speak. On a project this big, the critics should be more than a silent ATM.

“To build this train is to rob Californians of the desperately needed roads, water storage, and other meaningful infrastructure projects those tax dollars could buy. To build it is to doom taxpayers to perpetual subsidies to prop up the ultimate green vanity project.”