(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Transportation Wednesday announced its determination to terminate federal funding for California’s high speed rail, finding zero track has been laid on the project — first approved by voters 15 years ago.
DOT cited the state government’s “persistent noncompliance” with the federal grant agreement and no plan, even with existing federal grants, to close its admitted $7 billion budget gap for the initial 171-mile segment connecting Merced to Bakersfield in the sparsely populated Central Valley.
“What started as a proposed 800-mile system was first reduced to 500 miles, then became a 171-mile segment, and is now very likely ended as a 119-mile track to nowhere,” found the DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration. “In essence, [the California High Speed Rail Authority] has conned the taxpayer out of its $4 billion investment, with no viable plan to deliver even that partial segment on time.”
DOT says CHSRA has received $6.9 billion in federal funds in the last 15 years, while the likely-to-be-terminated grants would provide $4 billion. According to CHRA, approximately $13 billion has been spent on the project thus far.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest budget proposes spending more than $1 billion per year in cap-and-trade emissions credit charges on gas and oil producers, and other greenhouse gas emitters.
“The Authority strongly disagrees with the FRA’s conclusions, which are misguided and do not reflect the substantial progress made to deliver high-speed rail in California,” responded CHSRA. “The Governor’s budget proposal, which is currently before the legislature, extends at least $1 billion per year in funding for the next 20 years, providing the necessary resources to complete the project’s initial operating segment.”
It’s unclear if CHRA is referring to the 171-mile Merced-Bakersfield route, or the 119-mile-mile First Construction Segment Contingency that would run between Madera, a city of almost 70,000 residents, and Poplar Avenue in Kern County, which is near but not in Shafer, a small city of just over 20,000 residents.
FRA says CHRA’s mid-range and current revenue of $1 billion per year from the cap-and-trade program is “subject to substantial uncertainty and are trending lower than expected,” and that the state itself expects cap-and-trade revenues to fall nearly $200 million this year.
FRA also found “To date, CHSRA has not laid any track or started work on signal systems required for train operations” as evidence of the project’s lack of progress,” and that ridership estimates of 2 million annual riders of the Merced-Bakersfield segment “would be insufficient to cover costs.”
FRA says estimates of ridership between Los Angeles and San Francisco of 28.1 million relies on “CHRA’s s implausible assumption that 73 percent of riders would shift from highways, compared with 11 to 16 percent in European systems, a discrepancy suggesting intentional exaggeration” and “far exceeds Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor (12.1 million in 2023), despite serving a less dense region.”
Air travel between the two cities only constitutes 4.8 million passengers per year, FRA noted.
KCRA recently reported costs for the Merced-Bakersfield route, which CHRA says will be done by 2033. But CHRA’s inspector general says the route is “unlikely” to be completed “within its planned schedule” and has since grown to $38.5 billion, which would grow the segment’s funding gap to $10.2 billion.
California’s Democratic U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff slammed the Trump administration’s decision as partisan and undemocratic.
“The fact is that the California High-Speed Rail Project is already the most audited public works project in the country,” said Padilla and Schiff in a statement to The Center Square. “Rather than advance the progress being made in the Central Valley, Secretary Duffy has used a review process to appease President Trump and punish Californians who didn’t vote for him. We’ll keep fighting every partisan, self-defeating policy of this Administration as we build infrastructure fit for the 21st century.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy focused on the 315-page federal report’s detailed findings, while sharing his support for high speed rail overall.
“This report exposes a cold, hard truth: CHSRA has no viable path to complete this project on time or on budget,” said Duffy in a statement. “Our country deserves high-speed rail that makes us proud – not boondoogle trains to nowhere.”
Notably, FRA’s $3 billion grant to Brightline West, a private high-speed rail project set to transport passengers between the Los Angeles area and Las Vegas, has not been subjected to similar apprehension by the Trump administration. Brightline’s project is expected to carry twice as many passengers at about a fifth of the per-mile cost as the 171-mile Merced-Bakersfield state project.
