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Legal Challenge Could Freeze Billions In Funds For California's Bullet Train

California High-Speed Rail Authority
file photo

The future of California's high speed rail project may now rest with a Sacramento judge. Oral Arguments wrapped up Thursday in a case that says the project has strayed from what voters approved in 2008.

Stuart Flashman is the attorney representing Central Valley landowners who oppose the project. He wants the judge to stop high-speed rail in its tracks.

Flashman: "Hopefully what he's going to say is You know what, you can't keep going with this project. This project is not what the voters approved. You've got to stop construction until you do something that complies with what the voters approved."

At issue is whether the state's plan is financially viable. And whether it can truly run trains from San Francisco to Los Angeles in two hours and forty minutes or less. That's what Proposition 1A promised.

Lisa Marie Alley with the High-Speed Rail Authority says the project has been thoroughly vetted.

Alley: “This is really the opponent’s way to try to delay the project, which will ultimately cost the taxpayers more dollars.”

A ruling against the authority could freeze billions of dollars in voter-approved funds. The judge has three months to rule.