{"id":116378,"date":"2026-01-01T16:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/116378\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T16:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:44:08","slug":"letters-to-the-editor-you-cant-blame-trump-for-californias-high-speed-rail-missteps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/116378\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters to the Editor: You can\u2019t blame Trump for California\u2019s high-speed rail missteps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 1, 2026 7 AM PT <\/p>\n

To the editor: The statement by a California High-Speed Rail Authority spokesperson in this article really caught my attention (\u201cCalifornia drops lawsuit seeking to reinstate federal funding for the state\u2019s bullet train,\u201d<\/a> Dec. 28). \u201cMoving forward without the Trump administration\u2019s involvement allows the Authority to pursue proven global best practices used successfully by modern high-speed rail systems around the world,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n

Really? The project is years behind schedule and billions of dollars<\/a> over budget. That\u2019s the result of erratic support from the Trump administration?<\/p>\n

The second part of that authority\u2019s statement is a doozy. Only now will it be possible to \u201cpursue proven global best practices\u201d? Why couldn\u2019t those practices be pursued in past years?<\/p>\n

The project was authorized in 2008. I had high hopes back then. Yet here we are 17 years on with almost nothing to show for whatever effort has been expended in all that time. I have to wonder how several European countries (not to mention Japan) have successfully built high-speed rail lines. What did they do right that we can\u2019t replicate?<\/p>\n

Our bullet train project reminds me of the Gravina Island Bridge in Alaska \u2014 a.k.a. the \u201cBridge to Nowhere.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Martin Parker, Thousand Oaks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 1, 2026 7 AM PT To the editor: The statement by a California High-Speed Rail Authority spokesperson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6577,14711,59096,7,9,8,11198,2072,61978,61977,1838,1506,7785,225,3025,1519,72],"class_list":["post-116378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-authority","tag-billion","tag-bullet-train","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-dollar","tag-editor","tag-global-good-practice","tag-high-speed-rail-misstep","tag-letter","tag-project","tag-schedule","tag-state","tag-statement","tag-trump","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}