After yanking federal funding for California’s high-speed rail line, the Trump administration has decided to make the reallocation of those funds a very public matter.
After the federal Department of Transportation decided to pull $4 billion in funding from the project, it has now decided to redistribute that money to other rail projects around the country. In doing so, the announcements are explicit about the “boondoggle” of where the new funding came from.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office is pushing back, saying the rail is being built and calling out Duffy’s office for several other issues.
DOT decision
“This is California’s fault,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said. “Governor Newsom and the complicit Democrats have enabled this waste for years. Federal dollars are not a blank check – they come with a promise to deliver results.”
The department’s decision comes after a compliance review by the Federal Railroad Administration.
That report was more than 300 pages and came to numerous conclusions.
Those include a major funding gap for the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA), no path to complete the project on time, an overestimate of ridership projections and more.
The DOT says the CHSRA was given two opportunities to respond consistent with the grant agreements. But the FRA said none of the responses satisfied the terms.
“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. “It’s time for this boondoggle to die.”
California responds
“Duffy has a full-blown case of California Derangement Syndrome,” a spokesperson for Newsom’s office told Straight Arrow. “He can’t get through a press release without thinking about how Gavin Newsom is building the transportation system of the future in the world’s fourth-largest economy.”
In its response to Straight Arrow, Newsom’s office touted the transportation work the state has undertaken. They repeatedly called out Duffy and his department for taking credit for projects that were funded by former President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill.
A fraction of the office’s 1,004-word response to Straight Arrow addressed the high-speed rail plan.
It said 171 miles of the rail is currently under construction between Bakersfield and Merced and that 94% of the path is environmentally cleared and construction-ready.
His office also touted the project creating more than 19,000 jobs.
“Donald Trump still hasn’t signed a single major infrastructure bill in either term,” Newsom’s office said. “’Infrastructure Week’ has been a punchline for a decade for a reason. California will keep building the future — high-speed rail, clean transit, modern freight, and more — while Duffy keeps taking credit for funding the Trump administration has tried to claw back, politicize, and weaponize.”
Newsom’s office laid out five separate instances where Duffy and his team took credit for projects they either tried to kill or were funded in Biden’s bill.
When it comes to other infrastructure projects in the state, Newsom’s office said they’re leading the clean transportation resolution. That includes lowering vehicle emissions, a hydrogen-powered passenger train and more.
California attempted to sue to keep the funding but later dropped that suit.
“These are discretionary federal grants,” Adrian Moore, vice president at the Reason Foundation, told Straight Arrow. “It is absolutely up to the federal government.”
Congress could potentially force the Trump administration’s hand to keep the money in California, but given the balance of power on Capitol Hill, Republicans would have to cross party lines during an election cycle.
HSR project
When it comes to high-speed rail, it’s no secret that the project has been plagued with issues.
While the ballooning cost remains the biggest issue, potential legal violations and an overall lack of progress have dogged the initiative.
“This project is not going anywhere,” Baruch Feigenbaum, senior managing director of transportation policy at the Reason Foundation, told Straight Arrow. “The costs have escalated. The plan is not realistic. And so, at what point in time does the federal government have a right to claw it back? This might be one of those instances.”
The project is dramatically behind schedule.
And a recent report shows the total cost has now ballooned 83% to an estimated $231 billion, according to a recent report from the California Legislative Analyst’s Office.
When asked if this bullet train will ever shoot up the California coast, experts Straight Arrow spoke with had similar answers.
“It’s hard to imagine,” Feigenbaum said.
“No,” Moore simply added.
The state can continue to work on the project because only 18% of the money is coming from the federal government.
But as costs continue to rise, federal money could be the factor that dooms or saves the rail line.
In the spirit of “if you want something done right, do it yourself,” Newsom might be the one who ultimately puts the train on tracks. The Democrat has not officially announced, but he is believed to be heavily considering a run for the White House in 2028.
If that happens, he could potentially use the power of that office to help get this project back on track.
“There’s a scenario where if they had a Democrat in the White House, a Democrat House and Senate that was really committed to it, it might go somewhere,” Feigenbaum said.
Bullet trains whip through the countryside in countries like Japan and France. In the United States, only Amtrak’s Acela line and other select Midwestern tracks, and Florida’s privately owned Brightline trains, surpass 100 mph
There are reasons for that, especially the cost.
Building a bullet train involves labor laws, environmental processes and typically expensive consultants.
“It costs twice as much money on average to build a project in the U.S. as it does in any other developed country,” Feigenbaum said.
The cultural tie to owning automobiles in America also comes into play. Americans don’t typically rely on trains to get them long distances or even short distances.
An average person in the European Union travels 630 miles per year by train, while the average American goes only 17 miles.
“What the U.S. is trying to do is build trains and hope that people who have never ridden trains will suddenly start riding trains because they have new trains,” Moore said. “And there’s no respectable modeling evidence or experience that shows that’s the case.”
Playing politics
While this project clearly has issues, experts Straight Arrow spoke with also agreed this move from the DOT clearly has some political motivations.
“I don’t think the feds hold the money because they finally woke up and saw that it was a bum project,” Moore said. “I think it was a chance to take some money away from a blue state, and they jumped at it.”
California and the second Trump administration have been at odds from the start, including financial threats, fighting over redistricting, and repeated social media trolling.
Feigenbaum said that a project of this magnitude requires significant cooperation, something that’s highly unlikely between Newsom and Duffy.
“At least one of them is running for higher office, and maybe the other one’s running for another TV show, and so the incentives are just wrong to get something done,” he said.
Round out your reading
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- Why did the Feds seize the ’largest Martian meteorite on Earth’?
- Photos and video show exactly where and when Trump visited Ground Zero after 9/11.
