The last time Legal Insurrection reported on the construction of the California high-speed train system, President Donald Trump had canceled about $4 billion in grants.
I have been chronicling the saga of the bullet train for over 12 years at Legal Insurrection. “Bullet” in this project’s description is only accurate if it is being used to describe the lethality to the state’s budget in terms of waste, fraud, and abuse.
This fact was so noted by Trump himself in the July 2025 announcement.
Shortly after it happened, California’s officials immediately did what they always do: Sued the Trump administration. However, now it has reversed course and withdrawn the challenge.
Attorney General Rob Bonta of California filed a notice of dismissal on Tuesday, ending the federal lawsuit that the state had brought in July in the Eastern District of California.The defendants in the case were the Transportation Department and the Federal Railroad Administration, which had decided in June to cut the funding.The Transportation Department said a compliance review found that California had failed to meet federal grant requirements, citing costly changes to contracts, lowered ridership forecasts and missed deadlines.
In an official announcement that the lawsuit had been dropped, the State Attorney General’s office noted that California will seek other sources of funding while also slamming the Trump administration.
“This action reflects the State’s assessment that the federal government is not a reliable, constructive, or trustworthy partner in advancing high-speed rail in California,” an authority spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital.”The Federal Railroad Administration stated that all work performed by the Authority – whether undertaken as part of cooperative agreements or otherwise – remains ‘at risk’ and may not receive funding. Combined with the Administration’s persistent lack of good-faith engagement, this made clear that the federal government is unlikely to uphold its commitments to California. As a result, the State has opted to move forward without the Trump administration. We regret that they will not share in California’s success,” the spokesperson added.
In conjunction with this move, the California High-Speed Rail Authority launched an initiative to seek out private investors.
On December 19, the California High-Speed Rail Authority (Authority) initiated a process to bring private investors and developers to the Authority by summer 2026 in an effort to deliver the nation’s first true high-speed rail project faster, smarter, and evaluate new strategies to commercialize assets through private investment at the earliest possible opportunity, supporting future high-speed rail segment delivery.The Authority’s issuance of a Request for Qualifications for a Co-Development Agreement (CDA) is aimed at selecting a private partner to evaluate opportunities to invest and deliver the project faster and more efficiently, while commercializing assets (e.g. station facilities, track access, fiber, power, real estate, and others) at the earliest possible opportunity.
It will be fascinating to see if it can find any funding at this point.
When California’s high‑speed “bullet train” first went before voters as Proposition 1A on the November 4, 2008, statewide ballot, it authorized $9.95 billion in bonds as seed money for the project. At that time, the full San Francisco–Los Angeles/Anaheim Phase 1 system was commonly described to the public as costing on the order of about $33–$45 billion, with service between the Bay Area and Southern California anticipated around 2020.
I voted “No” on that measure back then, because I could see it would be the spectacular failure it has turned out to be. Presently, the estimated cost is closer to $130 billion, and there is no hard end date for the project, beyond projections of sometime in the early 2030’s.
However, given the recent news, perhaps state officials anticipate that backing can be found from Somali day care centers?
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