High-speed rail is California’s slow-motion train wreck. Two Democrats own this mess | Opinion
California high-speed rail aspirations threaten to become a slow-motion train wreck. The political window to fund the first segment from Merced to Bakersfield appears to have come and gone. Ahead, absent a change of direction, is a trickle of inadequate funding from Sacramento and a lot of rail-bashing from Donald Trump and California Republicans.
It’s pretty astonishing that after years of cost overruns and at times questionable management, a majority of Californians have stuck with the dream of riding fast trains throughout the state, according to one recent survey. And who can blame them. Our freeways and airports have become horror shows. So, sadly, has California transportation politics.
Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was in Los Angeles’ majestic train station the other day to announce a “compliance review” of the $4 billion in federal funds that went to the California High Speed Rail Authority during the Biden administration years.
“For too long, taxpayers have subsidized the massively over-budget and delayed California High-Speed Rail project,” Duffy said. “That is why I am directing my staff to review and determine whether the California High-Speed Rail Authority has followed through on the commitments it made to receive billions of dollars in federal funding.”
This audit has a predetermined conclusion. It will find waste, fraud, and abuse. Duffy and Trump will demand the federal money back. And California will say no.
Meanwhile in Sacramento, bet the ranch that Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislators will not soon find the money, estimated at more than $6 billion, to complete the 171-mile initial segment between in the San Joaquin Valley.
Newsom has signaled as much in his proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. The last two Democrats have supported the rail program with funds from polluters purchasing emission credits through the state’s so-called Cap and Trade program. Funding in 2023-24, for example, amounted to $574 million. At this support rate, however, it’s unclear if the budget gap ever gets closed as costs are certain to rise.
High-speed rail will be fortunate to maintain any level of funding as legislators likely face a fiscal train wreck of their own. If Republicans in Congress, as one example, follow through with plans to slash financial support for millions of Californians who depend on the state’s Medi-Cal program, legislators will either have to find the money elsewhere or cut benefits and participants. How much California must shoulder costs to rebuild from the Los Angeles fires also remains to be seen.
This painful saga did not have to unfold this way, and two Democrats are equally responsible.
It was three short years ago that Newsom and California were awash in taxpayer money, a budget surplus estimated at $75 billion. Newsom could have invested big in high-speed rail then. He did not.
Why? Perhaps it because he was never going to be the governor to board that first train, to showcase the first high-speed rail line in the United States to the nation and world. The construction was never to be completed under his watch. He has governed on this issue, some recent theatrics aside, as if he doesn’t care whether the next governor gets to ride that fast train or not.
President Joe Biden, meanwhile, could have easily doubled to $8 billion the funding at his disposal thanks to the passage of historic legislation to fund infrastructure projects throughout the country. Instead, his administration decided to slow-walk the money, assuming Biden had a second term to keep doling out the goodies. And we all know how that plan went.
So now we have Sacramento Democrats short on money, Republicans everywhere wanting the high-speed rail money back, well over $20 billion already spent and nothing yet to show for it. This is a failure by Democrats at a state and national level to champion a transportation alternative and fall short on delivering in spectacular, painful fashion..
This story was originally published March 3, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "High-speed rail is California’s slow-motion train wreck. Two Democrats own this mess | Opinion."