$4 Billion in Federal Funding Terminated for California’s High Speed Rail

President Donald Trump cuts off federal funds for California’s disastrous, fraudulent, corrupt High Speed Rail, we posted on X Wednesday, following his Truth Social announcement:

“This is California’s fault. 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. 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,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. “It’s time for this boondoggle to die. President Trump and I will always fight to ensure your tax dollars only go to projects that accomplish great, big, beautiful things.”

In June, the Globe reported:

The U.S. Department of Transportation just released a report Wednesday revealing that California’s High-Speed Rail project is in default of its federal grant agreements and has no viable path to completion – and not a moment too soon as the California Senate just approved yet another study on economic opportunities along the corridor of the California high-speed rail project, for $700,000. The high speed consultants attached to this boondoggle are the only people in California benefitting from the scheme.

As of June 2025, the total cost of the High-Speed Rail project hovers between $128 billion to $135 billion, with another $10.2-$14.2 billion likely to be tacked on soon, the Globe reported Tuesday.

This Globe reporter has covered California’s High Speed train-to-nowhere since 2008, when Proposition 1A was originally passed by voters. Only 4 years into the boondoggle, in 2012 I reported:

As California politicians show more desperation to build any part of the California High-Speed Rail system in order to get their hands on $3.5 billion in federal stimulus money, the plan is looking more like a whack-a-mole game. But every hole that is plugged, every detail that is softened or tweaked, and every cost estimate that is changed causes a bigger problem. The cover-up is worse than the original crime.

It is important to remember that high-speed rail is not really about achieving sexy world-class transportation for the purpose of serious people moving. It’s just a pipeline project for grabbing big money. Because of the illegitimacy of the project’s intent, the mole could be permanently whacked, and leave California taxpayers holding the bill.

Once the “high speed” route was changed from San Francisco to Los Angeles to Bakersfield to Madera, we renamed the train system “The Conjugal Express” after the two prisons on either end of the route.

The DOT gave California until mid-July to respond before the administration moves to terminate the grants. You can find a full copy of the letter and report, here.

In January 2025, California Congressman Kevin Kiley (R-CA) introduced a bill to eliminate federal funding for the failed California High-Speed Rail project citing “political incompetence,” and there being “no plausible scenario where the cost to federal or state taxpayers can be justified.”

Proposition 1A, $9 billion in bonds for high-speed rail, included numerous mandates, none of which can be legally bypassed on the way to building the massive train system.

Re-read my 2012 article, which lays out all of the Prop 1A mandates… and you’ll see that Secretary Duffy is right on.