Trump Says He’ll Eliminate Funding For California High-Speed Rail
Written by David C. Lester, Editor-in-Chief
California High-Speed Rail Authority
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– During his meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, at the White House this week, President Trump announced that he will eliminate funding for the California High Speed Rail Project.
Regarding the high-speed line slated to run from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Trump said “This government is not going to pay,” according to Reuters. One of the President’s concerns is cost overruns.
In 2008, California voters passed a resolution that would give the project $10 billion, but costs have ballooned since then and the project has been the target of significant criticism by the President.
President Biden’s Transportation Department gave the project $4 billion, but in February, the current administration began reviewing whether they should take that money back. Apparently, the decision has been made to do so.
It’s hard to argue the project has not faced significant cost overruns. Initially, the entire project was going to cost $40 billion, but over time increased to $89 billion then to $128 billion. In 2019, Trump revoked a grant of $929 million for the project that Biden restored in 2021. Trump called the project a “disaster.”
California leadership was not happy with this decision. A member of Governor Gavin Newsom’s staff said “With 50 major structures built, walking away now as we enter the track-laying phase would be reckless –– wasting billions already invested and letting job-killers cede a generational infrastructure advantage to China.”
A spokesperson from the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) said the project “is delivering real results. There is active civil construction along 119 miles in the Central Valley, resulting in over 15,000 construction jobs, and design and pre-construction activities are underway on the extensions to Merced and Bakersfield totaling 171 miles.”
