Federal Government Moves to Cut Funding for California High-Speed Rail
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy: “We don’t want to invest in boondoggles.”
The saga of California’s High Speed Train to Nowhere continues.
Legal Insurrection readers with really long memories may recall that President Trump audited California’s high-speed rail project back in 2018, during his first term.
At that point, the project had blasted through its budget and now may cost close to $100 billion. The subsequent inspector general report uncovered much that was..problematic. Subsequently, this February, the Trump administration threatened an investigation into the project and how the money was being spent.
In today’s update, a recent report reveals that California received $7 billion in federal funding for its high-speed rail project, but has failed to lay any actual track.
Despite more than a decade of planning and spending, the ambitious project (intended to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco) has faced repeated delays, cost overruns, and bureaucratic hurdles. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy is threatening to cut the funding to the project.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened Wednesday to pull federal grants for California’s High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) after it spent nearly $7 billion in taxpayer funds over a decade and a half without laying a single foot of track.
In a 310-page report, Duffy detailed the missed deadlines and stretched budget for the long-running project — and gave the Golden State’s high-speed rail office until July 11 to respond or get around $4 billion in additional grants cut off.
“This report exposes a cold, hard truth: CHSRA has no viable path to complete this project on time or on budget,” he said.
Originally passed as a ballot initiative in 2008, the 800-mile rail line was supposed to be completed in two phases on a $33 billion budget by 2020, with a main line connecting San Francisco with Los Angeles and branches stretching north to Sacramento and south to San Diego.
California got nearly $7B from feds for high-speed rail — but never laid any track, bombshell report shows https://t.co/c4asvySfJm pic.twitter.com/zZJ0Nl00pc
— New York Post (@nypost) June 4, 2025
The administration is giving California 30 days to respond to the findings of the review before what it said was a likely decision to revoke the funding.
“We don’t want to invest in boondoggles,” Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, told Fox News. “I want to see high-speed rail in America and why it can’t be built within, you know, time frames that work for the people that invest in these projects makes no sense to me.”
The scale of the high-speed train route has been chipped away since the federal government first gave its support to the idea in 2009, the report noted: Initially, the vision for the project was a rail line that would whisk riders from the Bay Area to Los Angeles in less than three hours on some of the fastest trains in the world.
Of course, the local media and Big Government mavens are complaining about the demands. The Los Angeles Times cites all sorts of statistics showing how much support high-speed rail has in this state (supposedly 67% of 1000 registered voters).
“California voters are tired of traffic jams and airport delays,” said Andy Kunz, president and chief executive of the U.S. High Speed Rail Assn. “Support for the California High Speed Rail project is growing as the state’s transportation system continues to grind to a halt.”
Rick Harnish, the executive director for the High Speed Rail Alliance, called the review “angering” and said it would only create further roadblocks for the project he believes is critical for the state.
“This isn’t just about the Bay Area to L.A. Basin. This is about transportation for the whole state, and it would be the catalyst for making truly financially viable communities, for making families — giving them more economic opportunity. It would just be huge.”
Democratic lawmakers have also generally supported the project.
I am sure the Democrats are big on all the union jobs, with all the union dues heading into the coffers.
However, my sampling indicates overwhelming support for Duffy’s move.
California’s high-speed rail is a money pit—billions over budget, five years behind schedule, and still not a single track or passenger. What was sold as a bold future is now a taxpayer-funded black hole. It’s 2025 and the only thing moving is the cost. Time to cut the funding,…
— Fatima Khan (@Fatima_Khatun01) June 4, 2025
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Comments
It’s a State of California project. It’s not a federal project. California should fund its own projects, not the federal government. They can’t manage their forests, dams or water storage responsibly. What makes anyone think they could manage a project of this size and complexity?
Management of this project by CA has been exemplary. Thousands of people have become millionaires and several billionaires have doubled their net worth. And, MOST IMPORTANT, the environment has not been harmed one bit.
It’s always been a boondoggle, they’re just whining that Trump is threatening to cut off the Federal tap if they don’t produce meaningful results and soon.
That train left the station a long time ago.
It’s been 15 years. It’ll never arrive.
Please note that Florida built its higher speed train from Miami to Orlando without any public funds at all.
Brightline is privately funded.
I never take even though I go from West Palm to Miami once a month as they forbid guns and have metal detectors.
I’m not traveling to Miami without my gun!
My rule is, anything that works is better than anything that doesn’t work.
Brightline isn’t fast, but it’s faster than driving.
“…spent nearly $7 billion in taxpayer funds over a decade and a half without laying a single foot of track”.
Wut? That’s not a boondoggle. That’s a sophisticated criminal enterprise. Why is no one in prison? They need to cut the funding and then refer the matter to Pam Bondi. It’s inconceivable that government, even California, can spend $7-BILLION on something with ZERO products/receivables produced without someone(s) getting filthy, stinkin’ rich.
A Democrat sock puppet Federal district judge will put a stop to this.
It was originally supposed to be direct non-stop from LA to SF. Maybe include SD and SJ. Then they decided to re-route it, so it would make stops at all the small towns in the Central Valley, and it lost its original purpose. Might as well just drive.
High speed rail often means losing money at higher speed.
Think about it like this: What’s happening is that the original purpose,—robbing the taxpayers camouflaged as a public works project—is becoming more obvious. All those stops between larger cities were coordinated with plans to turn farmland (often made less valuable by shutting off water to “save the environment”) into planned developments. It is certainly completely coincidental that the commission running the project has always (or at least almost always) included at least one member of the family that owns one of the largest property developers in the state.
Just one question: Why did it take so damned long to shut it down?
Only in CA can you do so little for so much .money.
Commiefornia follows the fiscal model established by the Soviet Union’s apparatchiks, with total fidelity.
The Commiefornia Rail Project is yet another in a long line of Dhimmi-crats’ brazen thefts from the public fisc; a grand hustle in a long line of Dhimmi-crat hustles.
Completing a viable (financially or engineering-wise) rail line isn’t the goal; shoveling obscene amounts of filthy lucre into the coffers of sundry Dhimmi-crat cronies, courtiers and donors, is.
It is California’s USAID project?
No it’s grift lower in the chain.
USAID’s business model was to hand out money to hundreds of grifts like this.
would to see more consistency from the djt admin in stopping funding to lefty projects
glad the cut this but what about complete cessation of funding for lefty run education camps!!
stop it no more threats stop it!!!
Fed funding should never have happened, now it should be terminated ASAP. Unfortunately this will allow the democrats to blame Trump for the project’s failure, enough CA voters will buy the story and the democrats will avoid accountability yet again.
Everybody at every level of this grifting money laundering kickbacking theft project should be in prison.
A forensic audit of all the money already spent should be first priority. Public accounting of everyone who’s hands are in the till.
An in-depth audit, followed by criminal prosecutions where appropriate.
This will cause a tremendous uproar in the Peoples’ Democrat Republik of Alta California as it is as close a thing as they have to an article of faith that they have an absolute right to defraud and steal from any and all citizens of the United States. At least part of the past losses will be made up by part of the rest of the country.
Popcorn consumed here is largely grown in the American Midwest. The popcorn consumption in this country is going to shoot skyward as everybody watches California find out that they will not always be able to steal our money.
Subotai Bahadur
This is the perfect example of why The State is our enemy! A moronic idea from day 1 which has done nothing but rob taxpayers and enrich politicians and connected businessmen. If you want to get from San Diego or LA to SF all you need to do is hop on a plane. It’s cheap and it’s fast. There is absolutely ZERO need for this f****** money pit.
Maybe California should put Kamala Harris in charge of the High-Speed Rail project.
Look at the magnificent job she did with Rural High-Speed Internet when she was VP. (eyeroll)
There was only one high speed rail that ever worked and that was Biden’s super high speed rail that brought millions of illegals from south of the border at lightning speed to cities in the US heartland.
Its not just the exorbitant real estate acquisition cost, or the high cost union labor construction expense. The most expensive part is the ongoing annual operating costs for generations. There is no model where it would have enough ridership to generate positive cash flow.
I remark to people that in my entire life, I have never lived anywhere where cable TV or pizza delivery were available. But I have lived in more than one place where I was taxed to construct a light rail system that had absolutely no plans to serve the region where I lived.
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