California High-Speed Rail Is a ‘Track to Nowhere,’ US Says in Move to Pull Funding

California’s high-speed rail project is a “story of broken promises,” a “waste of Federal taxpayer dollars” and a “Sisyphean endeavor.”

Or so the Trump administration’s Transportation Department said, which on Wednesday announced it was pulling $4 billion in federal funding from the woefully protracted, over-budget project that the state first broke ground on more than a decade ago.

“What started as a proposed 800-mile system was first reduced to 500 miles, then became a 171-mile segment, and is now very likely ended as a 119-mile track to nowhere,” Drew Feeley, acting administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, wrote in his scathing report to the state’s high-speed rail authority. “In essence, [the project] has conned the taxpayer out of its $4 billion investment, with no viable plan to deliver even that partial segment on time.”

The clawback of high-speed rail funding, originally granted by the Biden administration, should come as little surprise to state officials. Republicans have excoriated the massive infrastructure project almost since its inception in 1996, casting it as the epitome of government waste and inefficiency.

After unsuccessfully attempting to cut its funding during his first term, President Trump in February vowed to personally investigate the project, directing transportation officials to conduct a compliance review.

As expected, the subsequent report didn’t pull any punches, concluding that the California High-Speed Rail Authority has failed to comply with the terms of the federal grant.

“There is no viable path,” it asserted, for the state to complete the first 171-mile segment of the project, between Merced and Bakersfield, by the 2033 deadline — let alone to ever realize its original goal of an 800-mile system transporting riders from San Francisco to Los Angeles and San Diego at speeds of up to 220 mph.

“This 2025 compliance review demonstrates that CHSRA has not learned from its mistakes and mismanagement and has therefore failed to create an organization capable of effectively and efficiently managing project delivery,” the report stated.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday said he supports the concept of high-speed rail, but stressed that the administration doesn’t want to “invest in boondoggles.”

“I want to see high-speed rail in America,” he told Fox News. “Why it can’t be built in America and why it can’t be built within time frames that work for the people that invest in these projects makes no sense to me.”

Before the administration can terminate the funding, California has 30 days to take any corrective action and make the case that it has complied with the terms of the grant.

CHSRA on Wednesday said the report’s conclusions were “misguided and do not reflect the substantial progress made to deliver high-speed rail in California.”

“We remain firmly committed to completing the nation’s first true high-speed rail system connecting the major population centers in the state,” CHSRA spokesperson Daniela Contreras said in a statement to KQED. She noted that while ongoing federal support is important, the majority of the project’s funding has come from the state.

“To that end, the Governor’s budget proposal, which is currently before the Legislature, extends at least $1 billion per year in funding for the next 20 years, providing the necessary resources to complete the project’s initial operating segment,” Contreras said.

When California voters approved a $10 billion high-speed rail bond measure in 2008, the project’s promoters suggested the entire system could be completed in just over a decade, for under $40 billion. But those timelines have been repeatedly extended, and costs have skyrocketed — with CHSRA’s estimates now ranging from $89 billion to $128 billion.

Nevertheless, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Democrats have continued to fund the project in previous budgets, and are expected to do so again this year, even as the state now faces a $12 billion shortfall.

The governor, who is already challenging multiple other threats by the administration to withhold health care and education funding from the state, has also vowed to fight any effort to revoke rail funding.

But even if the $4 billion in federal funding is preserved, the state would still need to come up with as much as $6.5 billion more to finish the Central Valley segment, prompting the inspector general for CHSRA to recently cast doubt on whether the agency can line up all the necessary funding to meet its 2033 service launch date.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, a staunch advocate for the bullet train, conceded that the state “struggles with project delivery.”

“We need to be very clear that we have work to do in California to turn this project around, and we do have self-inflicted wounds,” he said, noting that sluggish, prohibitively costly transit development is a national problem, not just one in California. “It takes too long. It’s too expensive. The permitting is too difficult.”

But he said the state is working to streamline those permitting and development processes, and has recently hired new leaders to steer the project.

“We absolutely need to do better,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean we should give up on projects that will make people’s lives better and more affordable. And that’s what the high-speed rail will do.”

A statewide rail network would transform California’s economy, connect its many disparate regions, and dramatically reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions, Wiener said.

“Trump and his minions are hostile to rail, and to public transportation,” he said. “They want to get everyone in a car and maximize traffic congestion. And it’s really tragic that he’s politicizing this.”

KQED’s Dan Brekke contributed to this report.