Trump DOT Announces Hard Look at Cali’s Long-Delayed High-Speed Rail Boondoggle: ‘There is No Timeline’

The flow of federal funds to California’s much delayed high-speed rail boondoggle may be coming to an end, if recent attention from Trump administration Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has anything to do with it.

According to California-centric conservative outlet The Center Square, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced he was ordering the Federal Railroad Administration to look into a pledge by former President Joe Biden’s administration to invest a further $4.1 billion to the project, which is already well over budget.

The rail line, which was approved by voters in 2008 at an initial cost of roughly $35 billion, is supposed to link San Francisco with Los Angeles. It broke ground in 2015.

The number of miles completed and operational as of now? Zero. The cost? Roughly $100 billion over budget, according to estimates, somewhere between four and five times initial projections.

It makes no sense economically (The Center Square reported in December that one-way tickets from Los Angeles to San Francisco, at $86, were priced significantly higher than airline tickets on the same route despite the fact the train takes longer) nor environmentally (a 2012 estimate, when this thing was supposed to be on — pardon the pun — a fast track, said that the line would increase overall greenhouse gas emissions for the first 30 years of its operation before it reached its break-even point), so you may wonder what the point is.

Good question, Duffy concedes.

“We can’t just say, we’re going to give money and then not hold states accountable to how they spend that money,” Duffy said, adding that under Trump, the federal government would look at how prior expenditures worked out.

“There is no timeline for when you’re going to have a high-speed rail that goes from Los Angeles to San Francisco,” he added.

Well, there kind of is. The same way there kind of was one back in the day.

“The project started in 2008 but missed its scheduled completion date of 2020. The first tracks, for a 171-mile stretch from Merced to Bakersfield, were laid down in January in Kern County,” the Center Square noted.

“The California High-Speed Rail Authority said its goal is to operate the Merced-Bakersfield segment by the end of 2030, but added that may be delayed to sometime between 2030 and 2033. The cost of that segment alone is estimated at $32 billion to $35 billion.”

Just in case you don’t get how unimpressive that is, here’s a Google Maps illustration of what that would represent:

So, if you managed to ride your bike all the way southeast from San Francisco to Merced, then get on the train with your bike, rest up until you reached Bakersfield, then cycled all the way into Los Angeles, I mean, it’s super-quick and super-green! What’s not to love? And why don’t you don’t want to put more of your taxpayer dollars into it?

California lawmakers already knew the project was in trouble in terms of federal cash with the pending changeover at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., which is why both of the state’s senators and three Democratic representatives sent a letter to former Biden administration Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Dec. 20, begging for $536 million in funding before the Trump administration took over and started scrutinizing the project.

“Advancing progress on the California Phase 1 Corridor is essential for enhancing our nation’s and California’s strategic transportation network investments,” read the letter, signed by Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, and Reps. Pete Aguilar, Jim Costa, and Zoe Lofgren.

Their last minute application, the letter said, “aims to support the next stage of design for the first two segments in a sequence of design sections that have been environmentally cleared” by the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

Rep. Kevin Kiley, one of California’s elected Republicans (they do exist), promised to revoke any money air-dropped by Buttigieg on the choo-choo project as part of a bill to eliminate federal funding for the project, full stop.

A small group of CA Democrats is asking Biden to send even more money for High-Speed Rail. They want another $556 million, calling it “essential,” before Congress can pass my bill to deny further funding.

If Biden complies, we will make sure that the grant is promptly revoked.

— Kevin Kiley (@KevinKileyCA) December 22, 2024

However, the Biden administration already pledged billions to the project, despite the fact that Buttigieg didn’t cave to the last-minute demands. And Thursday, as Duffy and allied lawmakers held a media briefing outside of Los Angeles’ Union Station, there were still protesters screaming at them: “Build the rail! Build the rail!”

Duffy said that the protesters should be upset — but they should take their anger to Sacramento.

“They have every right to be angry, not at us, but at [Gov. Gavin] Newsom, the Democrats and the [California] High-Speed Rail Authority,” he said.

Duffy’s visit came one day before a state inspector general report, which made things worse for proponents of the project: “The independent auditor, established by state lawmakers in 2023, laid part of the blame at the feet of the High-Speed Rail Authority, noting that the public agency has a limited number of lawyers to review agreements with third-party groups and no clear guidelines on how quickly staff must complete internal processes,” Politico reported.

“The baseline schedules for the Merced and Bakersfield extensions showed the final configuration footprint being submitted by the end of 2024, which should have included approved utility relocation designs,” the report read. “However, the Authority did not meet this deadline.”

Quelle surprise.

If California’s taxpayers wish to continue to elect politicians that will continue to engender this dysfunctional outrage, go right ahead. Knock yourselves out — financially, anyway. But the U.S. taxpayer has already spent too much on this mess, which should have had the plug pulled on it years ago, and enough is already too much.

It’s time for the DOT to claw back the $4.1 billion in grants the Biden administration threw the Golden State’s way and get itself out of the high-speed choo-choo boondoggle business.

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