Feds cut off federal funding for California's "bullet train"

Well dang!

Would-be separate country California has been using other people's money to (pretend to) build a high speed railroad from LA to San Francisco. That source of money ended a few weeks ago.

In the first big hit to the Bay Area from the Trump administration, newly minted Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has put the brakes on $647 million for Caltrain to go electric — and in the process pretty much killed hopes for high-speed rail coming to San Francisco anytime soon.

…In a Jan. 24 letter to Chao, all 14 Republicans in the state’s congressional delegation called for the Caltrain money to be put on hold until a full audit is done on high-speed rail. On Friday, Chao obliged — the Federal Transit Administration, which she oversees, said a decision on the $647 million federal grant needed to keep the project going would be delayed.

Maybe this will persuade the state to consider maintaining its reservoirs instead.