Connect With Us

California’s bullet train authority decides to buy American after all

As Published by Ralph Vartabedian in Los Angeles Times

The California High Speed Rail Authority has reversed its plans to buy foreign parts for its trains, saying in a letter to federal regulators that it was withdrawing a request for a waiver from the Buy American Act.

The change on Thursday came after Rep. John Garamendi (D-Fairfield) and other Democratic lawmakers became outraged over the plan, disclosed last week, to import the most important parts of future rail cars, including motors, brakes, wheels, axles, the aluminum shells and undercarriages.

The reversal comes amid growing political uncertainty about the fortunes of the $64-billion project to build a bullet train from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

The loss of the White House gives Republican opponents of the project a stronger hand to end it, though nobody is sure what President-elect Donald Trump thinks about the project, according to Republican staff in Congress.