LaHood said his visit was in part so he could meet with those who are against the project, like valley farmers and some business owners.
“Businesses that are going to be dramatically impacted by the corridor, and I made a commitment to them... To mitigate the concerns that they have,” said LaHood.
Secretary LaHood talked about president Obama’s and governor Brown's support for the project. The Obama administration has allocated 10 billion dollars to similar projects across the country. Part of the money is headed to
“I think what mister LaHood is saying is that the federal government is 100% behind the 3.5 billion dollars that they have sent to this project,” said Fresno County Supervisor, Henry Perea.
Problem is, the price tag for the bullet train in our state is estimated to be more than $90 billion.
“We know there’s not enough money at the federal level to do this,” said LaHood.
“Every place in the world what's happened is that governments have put in the first amount of money when the risk to the private sector is too great and once the private sector sees the direction this is going then they jump in,” said Dan Richard, the Chairman of the California High Speed Rail Commission.