Trump administration launches review of California’s high-speed rail spending
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- California’s high-speed-rail project faces challenges related to budget and timeline.
- The Trump administration will review federal funding promises.
- Leaders say they are prepared to keep moving forward.
The Trump administration has launched a compliance review into California’s high-speed rail project, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Thursday.
The review will focus on $4 billion promised by the Biden administration for continued construction in the Central Valley between Merced and Bakersfield and will determine the outlook of future federal funding commitments for the train, which has faced ongoing challenges related to budget and timeline.
“We can’t just say we’re going to give money and then not hold states accountable to how they spend that money — how they spend it per the agreements that they made with the federal government,” Duffy said at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. “If California wants to continue to invest, that’s fine, but we in the Trump administration are going to take a look at whether this project is worthy of a continual investment.”
Duffy said that the department would also review grants attached to environmental and social justice initiatives.
The announcement comes days after Republican lawmakers urged President Trump to investigate the high-speed rail line and after he and Cabinet leaders signaled they would examine the project.
The potential loss of federal support would pose one more setback for the project, which has struggled to identify tens of billions of needed funds and has no clear timeline for completion.
“We welcome this investigation and the opportunity to work with our federal partners,” said Ian Choudri, chief executive of the High-Speed Rail Authority. “With multiple independent federal and state audits completed, every dollar is accounted for, and we stand by the progress and impact of this project. ... This investment has already generated $22 billion in economic impact, primarily benefiting the Central Valley.”
The authority has said that roughly $13 billion has been spent on the project and that the majority has been funded through the state; Duffy said that $15.7 billion has been spent on the project. The numbers differ because the authority is using total spending to date, where as the federal department’s estimate includes forecasted spending through the end of the fiscal year.
During the news conference, chants from protesters on the other side of a curtain that separated the news conference from the train station drowned out comments from Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin) and other lawmakers who are against the high-speed rail project.
Jesse Budlong, a transportation planner who attended the protest, called the location of the announcement a political grandstand against transit users who rely on public transportation.
“We weren’t expecting anything positive today,” he said. “The programs are audited every month and year by multiple departments and agencies, so I don’t think they’re necessarily going to find anything that’s shocking.”
Duffy told protesters to take their frustrations to state leaders.
“If you want to go protest somewhere, if you want to shout at someone, go to the governor’s mansion. Go talk to Democrats in the Legislature who have brought us this crappy project,” he said.
Transportation labor leaders took issue with Duffy’s comments.
“As America’s largest transportation labor federation, representing thousands of rail and building trades workers who will build, operate, and maintain the California High-Speed Rail System, we strongly disagree with Secretary Duffy’s remarks that this is ‘a crappy project’ and ‘a train to nowhere’,” Greg Regan and Shari Semelsberger, president and secretary-treasurer of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, respectively, said in a statement.
“Just last year, President Trump complained that the United States does not have bullet trains similar to Japan. We agree with him that it is past time for our country to have these kinds of modern, efficient, high-capacity transportation systems. We also realize that those nations with bullet trains are ones who prioritized and paid for them. We are the wealthiest country in the world, and Americans deserve world-class trains right here at home.”
Although the entire line between San Francisco to Los Angeles was environmentally cleared for construction last year, the project has faced massive challenges. The budget is roughly $100 billion more than the authority’s original $33-billion estimate, and leaders have yet to identify tens of billions of dollars needed to finish it. The train was initially pitched for a 2020 launch; instead, construction has been limited to a 171-mile stretch in the Central Valley and no part has been completed.
The obstacles have been acknowledged by board members and transit leaders, and a state-appointed peer review group that advises the authority has suggested the plan be reexamined. Private sector investments have been flagged as necessary for the project’s survival.
Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), who sits on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, is concerned over the large-scale effect the potential federal defunding of high-speed rail may have across the state.
“This is not an administration that seems to be favorable toward transit and toward California,” she said, adding that the absence of federal funding would require further taxpayer support to complete projects already underway. “It would mean that in order to finish these projects, people would have to spend even more of their own money, their own tax dollars, at a time where it’s really important that we give people relief and bring down the cost of living.”
Trump slammed the high-speed rail project this month, calling it “mismanaged.” In response, the High-Speed Rail Authority posted a progress report on X.
“Ignore the noise. We’re busy building,” the post said, highlighting the project’s environmental clearance for construction between Los Angeles and San Francisco, construction in the Central Valley and more than 14,000 jobs the project has provided.
California’s high-speed rail endeavor has been targeted by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which is led by Elon Musk. In a post on X in December, it highlighted the $6.8 billion the project has received in federal funding, and the authority’s request for an additional $8 billion. Musk said last year that billions of dollars have been spent on high-speed rail “for practically nothing.”
The first Trump administration tried to claw back roughly $1 billion promised by the Obama administration. The authority and state leaders are prepared to keep moving forward.
Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom and transportation officials tied the state’s high-speed rail line with the privately owned Brightline West train, which would connect Los Angeles to Las Vegas, and announced the two may someday connect. Duffy said Thursday that Brightline could be “worthy of investment.”
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