Huge setback for California’s $128bn high-speed rail project after Trump cuts funding

Donald Trump has cut $4bn in federal funding for California’s high-speed rail project, calling plans to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles a “train to nowhere”.

The US president claimed the “disastrously priced” train network was a “boondoggle” led by the “incompetent” California state governor, Gavin Newsom.

Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday: “To the Law abiding, Tax paying, Hardworking Citizens of the United States of America, I am thrilled to announce that I have officially freed you from funding California’s disastrously overpriced, ‘HIGH SPEED TRAIN TO NOWHERE.”

He added: “This boondoggle, led by the incompetent Governor of California, Gavin Newscum, has cost Taxpayers Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we have received NOTHING in return except Cost Overruns.”

California's controversial high-speed rail project was first approved in 2008 as a project designed to shuttle riders between San Francisco and Los Angeles in under three hours.

The Trump administration officially stopped all future federal funding for the rail line on 16 July.

Voters originally approved $10bn for the planned two-phase 800-mile railway, slated to cost $33bn and be finished by 2020.

The high-speed rail system was due to reach speeds of up to 220mph, with phase one connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles, and phase two extending north to Sacramento and south to San Diego.

However, the project has been beset by funding challenges, cost overruns and delays and was recently projected to cost as much as $128bn.

In June, a report by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) found that the project had missed deadlines and experienced budget shortfalls, including a $7bn gap needed to build an initial 171-mile segment between Merced and Bakersfield, California.

It added that the project has not yet begun laying any track.

FRA acting administrator Drew Feeley said the FRA made the “unavoidable conclusion that CHSRA will not be able to deliver the operation of a Merced-to-Bakersfield corridor by the end of 2033” in a letter to California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Ian Choudri.

Under the former president, Joe Biden, the Transportation Department awarded the project around $4bn.

Transportation secretary Sean Duffy also called the high-speed rail project a “boondoggle” in a post on X on Thursday.

Mr Duffy said: “Governor Newsom and California’s high-speed rail boondoggle are the definition of government incompetence and possibly corruption. The price tag has gone from $33B to $135B with no completion date in sight. We could give every single LA & SF resident almost 200 free flights for that much.

“That’s why TODAY we’re pulling the plug on federal funding for this train to nowhere. I won’t help Gavin Newsom waste your money!”

Gavin Newsom said in a statement: “Trump wants to hand China the future and abandon the Central Valley. We won’t let him. With projects like the Texas high-speed rail failing to take off, we are miles ahead of others.

“We’re now in the track-laying phase and building America’s only high-speed rail. California is putting all options on the table to fight this illegal action.”

Mr Newsom has led efforts to deliver the high-speed rail project since he became governor in 2018.

CA High-Speed Rail said that cancelling the grants was “wrong” and “illegal” in response to the Federal Railroad Administration.

It said: “These are legally binding agreements, and the Authority has met every obligation, as confirmed by repeated federal reviews, as recently as February 2025.”

CEO Ian Choudri added: “This is no time for Washington to walk away on America’s transportation future.”

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