State And Federal Legal Fight Brewing After De-Funding CA High Speed Rail
Washington, DC — The Trump Administration is rescinding $4 billion in federal funding for the California High Speed Rail project.
In announcing the decision, President Donald Trump says the project was “severely overpriced, overregulated, and never delivered.” He and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have both referred to the project as a “train to nowhere.”
The initial funding for the project was approved by California voters in 2008 with a goal of having it operational within a decade. However, there have been significant delays and cost overruns. The estimated total price tag to finish the project is now over $100 billion. The state is also now exploring private enterprise funding at this point.
State officials have a goal of having the initial leg, from Merced to Bakersfield, operational by 2033.
Governor Gavin Newsom responded to the federal action by arguing that President Trump and Secretary Duffy are “handing China the future and abandoning the Central Valley.”
Newsom continued that the California High Speed Rail Authority is entering the “track laying phase” and “actively building across 171 miles, with 50 major railway structures and 60 miles of guideway completed.”
He notes that California will now explore all options to fight what he calls an “illegal action” of the Trump administration.
Mother Lode Republican Congressman Tom McClintock is praising the decision to rescind the federal funding. He says in a statement, “When I opposed the High Speed Rail 25 years ago, I calculated that we could add 2,000 miles of new freeway lanes to our most densely congested corridors for the same price. That’s still true. For what Newsom has already wasted, we could have added more than 200 miles.”