California will not complete $77 billion high-speed rail project: governor

FILE PHOTO: Gavin Newsom campaigns at San Diego State University in San Diego, California, U.S. November 2, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake

(Reuters) - California Governor Gavin Newsom said Tuesday the state will not complete a $77.3 billion planned high-speed rail train, but will finish a smaller section.

"The project, as currently planned, would cost too much and take too long. There’s been too little oversight and not enough transparency," Newsom said in his first State of the State Address Tuesday to lawmakers.

"Right now, there simply isn’t a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to (Los Angeles). I wish there were," he said.

Newsom said the state will complete a high-speed rail link between Merced and Bakersfield. In March 2018, the state forecast the costs had jumped by $13 billion to $77 billion and warned that the costs could be as much as $98.1 billion.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)