Today, Senator Tony Strickland (R-Huntington Beach), who serves as Vice Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, offered the opportunity for California Senate Democrats to stop pouring good money after bad into California’s high-speed rail project by proposing a floor amendment bill that would stop any further construction and funding of the project. Senate Democrats voted along party lines to block his effort to bring the proposal to the Senate floor for discussion.
“It’s no longer the high-speed rail. It’s the ‘high-speed fail’ because it has failed in every aspect, from missed deadlines and costly overruns to broken promises to the people of California,” said Senator Strickland. “This project wouldn’t be alive without the extensive and expensive lifesaving measures it has been provided over almost two decades, all at a tremendous cost to shovel-ready projects. The latest 2026 business plan is unrealistic, and there is still no clear funding mechanism to complete the project.”
During an April informational hearing, both the project’s inspector general and the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office testified using phrases such as “unrealistic,” “lacks transparency,” and “risky.” A Democratic Senator called the 2026 Business Plan a “disaster.” Making matters worse, the high-speed rail’s governing authority (CHRSA) has arbitrarily changed the scope of the program and increased its costs, ignored specific legal requirements, assumed significant changes in state law, and dramatically revised cost estimates multiple times. The San Francisco–Los Angeles line is now estimated to cost $231 billion and counting.
“Senate Democrats continue to bet on the losing high-speed fail. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result,” added Senator Strickland.
In May, the McClatchy Newspapers published Vice Chair Strickland’s opinion piece in five of its California’s newspapers where he urged the California State Legislature and Governor Newsom to pull the plug on the high-speed rail. Click HERE to read the op-ed: California Republican leader: It’s time to pull the plug on high-speed rail.
“No doubt, the high-speed fail will go down as the worst public project in world history,” he concluded.