By Naveen Athrappully
Contributing Writer
President Donald Trump announced the cancellation of funding for California’s High-Speed Rail project, citing delays and affordability issues, according to a Wednesday Truth Social post.
“To the law-abiding, taxpaying, 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,’” Trump said.
The project has already cost taxpayers $15 billion, without yet seeing any returns. “The railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will. This project was severely overpriced, overregulated, and NEVER DELIVERED,” Trump said.
Trump commended Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for pulling the plug on the “ill-conceived and unnecessary” project.
The Federal Railroad Administration terminated approximately $4 billion in unspent federal funding for the rail project, Duffy said in an official project cancellation statement.
Duffy said that after spending around $15 billion over a period of 16 years, the California High-Speed Rail Authority failed to lay even a single high-speed track. According to the department, the projected total cost of the project has come to around $135 billion.
“Federal dollars are not a blank check — they come with a promise to deliver results. After over a decade of failures, CHSRA’s mismanagement and incompetence has proven it cannot build its train to nowhere on time or on budget,” Duffy said.
The planned high-speed rail covers 800 miles and would connect San Francisco to Los Angeles-Anaheim, with train speeds of up to 200 mph.
The transportation department under President Joe Biden awarded the project about $4 billion. The San Francisco-to-Los Angeles project was initially supposed to be completed for $33 billion by 2020.
Newsom’s Response
Gov. Gavin Newsom responded to the announcement, alleging that the Trump administration’s termination was illegal. He said the state will fight back against the decision.
“Trump wants to hand China the future and abandon the Central Valley,” Newsom said in an official statement. “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.”
He said the Trump administration’s announcement comes as the project “is actively building across 171 miles, has built more than 50 major railway structures — including bridges, overpasses, and viaducts — and completed over 60 miles of guideway.”
CHSRA CEO Ian Choudri echoed Newsom’s sentiment.
“Canceling these grants without cause isn’t just wrong — it’s illegal,” Choudri said.
Choudri said that CHSRA has, thus far, met every obligation, which has been confirmed by federal reviews, as recently as February 2025, adding that over 15,000 jobs were created as part of the project.
“This is no time for Washington to walk away on America’s transportation future,” he added.
Newsom’s statement concluded by saying that the high-speed rail has marked significant progress, like completing environmental reviews spanning 463 miles from Los Angeles to the Bay Area, and the electrification of Caltrain, with passenger service expected sometime between 2030 and 2033.
Compliance Review
According to the transportation department, the decision to cancel California’s high-speed rail project follows the Federal Railroad Administration’s exhaustive compliance review.
The review was conducted after CHSRA submitted its report in February. In the report, CHSRA Inspector General Benjamin M. Belnap admitted that certain segments of the project could not meet the estimated time frame, and will lead to delays beyond 2033.
Based on this assessment, the FRA conducted its review and found that CHSRA could not meet its binding obligations under the agreements it made to receive federal funding.
In addition, the FRA found that CHSRA has executed numerous change orders and will likely have many more change orders in the near future. It added that the rail authority has at least a $7 billion funding gap to complete the estimated order schedule and lacks time and money to electrify the EOS by the deadline. All in all, it said, CHSRA does not have a viable path to complete the project by 2033 and lacks the capacity to deliver the project.
Post review, the FRA sent a formal termination notice to the CHSRA on June 4, and since their response was found to be unsatisfactory, the FRA said it decided to terminate the agreements.
