California's high-speed rail project and the feds are no longer on speaking terms
LOS ANGELES - The California bullet train project, for much of the past decade, enjoyed no more important partner than the U.S. Department of Transportation.
DOT was supplying the state with billions of dollars in grants, showering the project with political affection and later making repeated amendments to its funding deals to help the state weather construction delays.
But today, federal agencies and the state high-speed rail authority are like a couple filing for an unseemly divorce and alleging mutual mistreatment of their child - a partly built bullet train from Merced to Bakersfield. The two sides aren't even speaking, foreshadowing further setbacks for an already troubled rail endeavor.
In March, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao let it spill out in a speech at the Conservative
