Trump administration threatens to pull billions from CA high-speed rail project
The Trump administration on Wednesday threatened to pull $4 billion from California’s high-speed rail project, citing “a trail of project delays, mismanagement, waste and skyrocketing costs.”
The federal Department of Transportation detailed its complaints in a lengthy report.
“This report exposes a cold, hard truth: CHSRA (the high-speed rail authority) has no viable path to complete this project on time or on budget,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
The project, which would run from San Francisco to Los Angeles, has received about $6.9 billion in federal money over the last 15 years, “but has not laid a single high-speed track,” the report said.
Even with continued federal support, the project is far short of the funding needed to finish just a fraction of the track,” the department said.
In the letter to Ian Choudri, chief executive officer of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, Federal Railroad Administration head Drew Feeley described the project as “a story of broken promises and of waste of federal taxpayer dollars.”
The project has been plagued repeatedly by delays and higher-than-expected costs. Most of the construction has been in the Central Valley but no lines have been finished.
But in a Wednesday statement to The Fresno Bee, the rail authority called the report’s conclusions misguided and not reflective of the progress that the project has made. The agency also said it remains committed to the bullet train’s completion.
“We remain firmly committed to completing the nation’s first true high-speed rail system connecting the major population centers in the state,” the rail authority said. “While continued federal partnership is important to the project, the majority of our funding has been provided by the state.”
The agency also pointed out that, to date, most of the approximately $13 billion spent on the high-speed rail has come from the state.
The state is likely to continue being the project’s primary sponsor, as Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed in his May budget revision that $1 billion per year for the high-speed rail through 2045 come from California’s cap-and-trade program. The state program generates public dollars from companies that buy credits at state auctions to offset their greenhouse gas emissions.
It has been the only source of ongoing funding for the high-speed rail, generating $6.4 billion for its construction from 2012 to 2023.
“The authority will fully address and correct the record in our formal response to the FRA’s notice,” the rail authority said.
U.S. Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, also rebuked the Trump administration’s threats against high-speed rail Wednesday.
”This undermines over 15,000 jobs created, growing local economies, and connecting both rural and urban communities alike,” Costa said in a statement. “He doesn’t understand the San Joaquin Valley or the legal challenges that have delayed this project. Instead, he is stalling progress and killing good-paying jobs to score political points.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, was outraged, calling the announcement “a rejection of our future.”
But Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Roseville, who has long raised objections to the project, said “It is time to end this disastrous project once and for all, and use our transportation dollars to improve our roads, alleviate traffic, and improve the quality of life for Californians.”
This story was originally published June 4, 2025 at 10:46 AM with the headline "Trump administration threatens to pull billions from CA high-speed rail project."
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