The Trump administration is pulling more federal funding from California’s High-Speed Rail project.
On Tuesday, the Department of Transportation announced it was withdrawing roughly $175 million previously awarded by President Joe Biden to the California High-Speed Rail Authority.
The federal funds were earmarked for several projects along the high-speed rail route, including multiple grade separations to separate vehicle and train traffic where would intersect, as well as one of the project’s planned stations in Madera.
In scathing comments released by the Department of Transportation, Secretary Sean Duffy referred to the project as a “boondoggle” and a waste of the nearly $14 billion already spent on the early design and construction elements.
“Joe Biden and [former DOT Secretary] Pete Buttigieg didn’t care about these failures and dumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the state’s wish list of related fantasy projects,” Duffy said in a release. “The waste ends here. As of today, the American people are done investing in California’s failed experiment.”
Duffy continued by saying that the projected price tag of roughly $135 billion would allow for every resident of San Francisco and Los Angeles to buy nearly 200 individual roundtrips between the cities. Although CAHSR officials and project advocates have noted that the high-speed rail system would not be used exclusively by residents of those two cities, nor is it specifically designed with only those two cities in mind.
Rather than continue providing federal funds for California, Duffy said his department would instead “focus on making travel great again by investing in well-managed projects,” although he did not specify what those projects might be. The Trump administration has previously voiced support for Brightline West, a private endeavor to connect Southern California with Las Vegas, which itself has received billions in federal funds.
The decision to pull back this latest round of funding comes weeks after the state of California filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration after the president announced he was cancelling nearly $4 billion in federal grants for the project.
The lawsuit accuses the federal government of of terminating the funding in an act of “petty, political retribution, motivated by President Trump’s personal animus toward California and the high-speed rail project, not by facts on the ground.”
A spokesperson for the California High-Speed Rail Authority provided a statement to KTLA Tuesday echoing much of the sentiment of the previously filed lawsuit.
“This is a continuation of the Trump Administration’s illegal, politically motivated, and baseless attack on California High-Speed Rail and Central Valley communities,” the statement reads in part. “The facts are clear: California is delivering the only true high-speed system under construction in North America.”
That same official said the Authority is on the verge of purchasing track and system components to be installed along the high-speed rail corridor in the Central Valley within the next year.
“While opponents are recycling tired political attacks, California is building the future of American transportation,” the statement concludes.
Ian Choudri, CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, is currently advocating for dedicated funding for the project, with potentially as much as $1 billion allocated for construction of high-speed rail every year through the state’s cap-and-trade revenue.
That consistent, reliable state funding, rather than the current volatile funding model, would allow the Authority to seek financing for the project, and accelerate construction and find new revenue streams.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has supported this plan and urged the California Legislature to back it.
Current construction on the California High-Speed Rail is taking place along a 119-mile segment of the route that comprises the bulk of the initial operating segment, a portion of the route in the Central Valley that is expected to be completed in the early 2030s.