Proposed DOGE Co-Commissioner Vivek Ramaswamy (Photo: Gage Skidmore)
Upcoming Department Of Government Efficiency to Take Aim at California High Speed Rail
DOGE & Trump will likely cause an even more inflated budget, longer delays for California High Speed Rail
By Evan Symon, December 6, 2024 5:40 pm
Expected Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Co-Commissioner Vivek Ramaswamy confirmed on Thursday that DOGE will be looking at removing all-funding from the California High Speed rail project, with Ramaswamy particularly concerned about the project still looking for $100 billion to be completed.
Originally estimated to cost $33 billion in 2008, costs of the high speed rail system have ballooned to well over $100 billion, whittled down to $98 billion, then cut to $68 billion, and back up to $113 billion, to $128 billion, and up again to $135 billion. Completion dates have also been continuously delayed, with the original goal of the system traveling from San Francisco to Los Angeles by 2028, to well into the 2030’s for a partial completion. Despite numerous setbacks, and more Californians calling the plans into question, construction on the Bakersfield to Merced leg have continued on for the last several years, with overall support for the program still just above 50% in the state and the federal government pouring billions into the project as well.
At the beginning of this year, construction estimates were at $128 billion to $135 billion, with estimated partial completion still being in the 2030’s. However, California High Speed Rail Authority (CHRSA) CEO Brian Kelly told lawmakers in March that more is needed. In the short term, the $28 billion allocated to connect Bakersfield with Merced as part of phase one would be falling short of what is needed. The cost is now set between $32 Billion and $35 Billion for an estimated opening between the years 2030 and 2033. Kelly also asked the Governor to prioritize the project and asked lawmakers to send some rainy day funds towards the project to help finish the first leg. Longer-term, Kelly shocked both Republicans and Democrats by saying that, according to the latest updated draft plan, at least another $100 billion in total would be needed to complete the total linkup between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Since March, the “$100 billion behind” number has remained largely unchanged. But the grand scale of the project has only invited more criticism. Following Donald Trump’s victory last month and his proposal of forming DOGE, the cost of the High Speed Rail project has once again fallen under federal crosshairs. Previously, Trump had cancelled around $1 billion in funding for the project when he was still in his first term, only for President Joe Biden to bring it back, along with an extra $300,000. But now, all federal funding was being proposed for the chopping block.
Late last month Ramaswamy pointed out on X that “This is a wasteful vanity project, burning billions in taxpayer cash, with little prospect for completion in the next decade. President Trump correctly rescinded ~$1BN in federal funds for this boondoggle in 2019, but Biden reversed that & doubled down. Time to end the waste.”
This led to Thursday when proposed DOGE co-Commissioners Ramaswamy and Elon Musk were in Washington talking to GOP leadership about the proposed DOGE. Potential targets were discussed, with California High Speed rail being one of them, along with Medicare, Social Security and electric vehicle subsidies.
While California lawmakers have yet to publicly respond to a possible cut of all federal funds for the high speed rail project as of Friday afternoon, critics of the high speed rail plan have said that federal cuts of that magnitude would put the project in a real bind, perhaps even delaying opening of it further into the 2030s.
“If DOGE does become reality and they deliver on their promise on getting rid of all federal funding for the project, then the state will have to deal with that shortfall,” transportation industry accountant Derrick Clark told the Globe Friday. “Right now, the project is trying to get $4.7 billion in federal grants to stay at their current spending levels. Biden is likely to get them $200 million of that before leaving office, leaving it up to Trump to approve the other $4.5 billion in grants. And that he is likely not going to do, especially if DOGE highlights that.
“And that adds up each year. Last year at this time, the federal government gave $3.1 billion in grants to high speed rail. If we’re talking billions each year, that means that, under Trump, we’re talking billions and billions more being blocked. And covering those shortfalls falls right back on the state. And that means an even more inflated budget and more opening delays.”
Potential DOGE officials and Trump have yet to confirm if they won’t approve the needed $4.7-$4.5 billion in funding, although it is likely that they will.
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Huge waste, and the definition of boondoggle. Cut the funds. California politicians will howl. It will be fun to watch.
This is going to be so much fun to watch – Gavin and his cronies are going to be run out of town! Ha ha ha!
So true. Much fun.
In addition, send in a few dozen FBI forensic accountants to see where California’s tax money is going besides the B.S. train. California taxpayers are being robbed blind.
California is coming back and turning red! I’m so excited. Going to be fun to watch the squirming.
I hope so!!!
yep all our taxes are being send to those slacker RED states who can’t afford basic services for their own population and rely on federal money.
That’s great news. its wasteful spending.
Newsom and his crime family will be exposed. it’s a crime to approve $3000 per square yard of cement, yes its paid by us California residents. The top grade cement with heat compounds only cost $600 per square yard. But, the company overseeing the construction is a Newsom campaign fund raiser. That should be a crime, like Panera bread being exempt from the minimum wage hike. I’m glad this is happening.
The first 171 mile section from Merced to Backersfield is not scheduled to be completed until at least 2030, 22 years after the voters approved it. There is no estimate to complete the full 494 mile stretch from Anaheim to San Francisco. Time to kill this colossal waste of money.
I’m glad this is happening. The Newsom Pelosi Crime Family will finally be exposed.
Its criminal to give a multi billion dollar contract to the construction company that is also a major Newsom campaign donor, that’s why Newsom approved $3000 per square yard of cement. The top grade cement with heat compounds only cost $600 per square yard.
Just like Panera Bread being listed as exempt from the minimum wage hikes by Newsom.
Hopefully us California residents will finally find out where our tax dollars have gone.
Elon Musk was against California’s high speed rail since the early 2010s, and now that he is on DOGE, it does not look good for California’s high speed rail’s future funds from the federal government. Californians were instrumental in helping Elon’s EV company, Tesla, survive its early years as a startup. Hopefully, Californians will be instrumental in Tesla’s downfall by continuing to buy non-Tesla EVs.
Elon musk’s so called “Hyperloop” project didnt even make it out of the testing phase and flopped. Meanwhile, CAHSR has actually made much more progress than hyperloop, the project that was touted to make conventional rail “obsolete”
Top to bottom revision of all 501(c) nonprofit regulations should be a DOGE priority. As Krauthammer said, “nonprofits are out of control quasi-governmental organizations.” Our 1.5 million NOPs have become partisan and subversive — wielding $6 trillion in assets.
Bakersfield to Merced? Gotta be the most expensive cattle transportation in history.
Ironically, the only way that this project will be a true “Waste of money” and “Example of inefficiency” is if the DGE kills it. So much significant progress has already been made on it, progress being the entire SF-LA route being environmentally cleared, multiple important structures like grade separations, viaducts/bridges, a good standing chunk of ROW basically ready for tracks to be put on, as well with a commuter railway being electrified, causing great increases in ridership (caltrain electrification was a part of the project, yes).If they were to just yank the plug on that, only then it would be a waste, all of those improvements and structures would be wasted, if not the project being delayed even more.
Keep in mind too that the original Shinkansen’s budget went from 200 to almost 400 billion yen during its construction, as well as the highway act (1956) being 500 billion dollars and taking 36 years to build, rather similar story with CAHSR.
The US also invests billions of more dollars in other expensive (maybe even more usless) stuff like military (820+BN in 2023), oil (145+BN in 2023). I feel like trying to criticize CAHSR for holding a big price tag while straight up ignoring other (even less useful) investments is unfair and biased. One final thing is that despite the high cost of CAHSR, if you look at the bigger picture, it’s really highway expansions that cost more in the long run. They seem like a cheap and instant solution for traffic, but in reality they only worsen traffic. Despite that, projects like those still get worked on, leading to a vicious cycle of repeatedly widening highway, becoming a true “waste of money” and example of a government being “inefficient”, not even mentioning the grave impacts on the environment and air quality. This similarly applies to expanding airports, which again are expensive, and do not help the environment, while high speed rail has proved to be helpful for the environment.
It was a waste of money in 2008 and has been nothing but a moneypit since and will continue to be well after it is completed…if ever.
These negative comments about the high-speed LA to SF rail link sound like the cranks that opposed the trans continental railroad in the 19th Century. “A railroad across the country? A wasteful boondoggle, politician vanity project. impossible to transverse the obstacles. Greedy entrepreneurs trying to put wagon trains out of existence!” The social and economic benefits of a Calif North/South high-speed rail line are incalculable, and will dwarf the amount of current investment everyone is complaining about. And make no mistake, Trump and his cronies are just using a high profile project to stick it to California for not supporting his blustering B.S. Don’t fall for it.
Is this just your opinion or do you have an independent study to support your claims?
Governor Brown’s train to nowhere, Harris’ high speed internet for the masses and Biden’s electric vehicle chargers… Is there a theme here?
At least it’s not money going out of the country to fight Wars. America has no high-speed rail and depends on air travel: go to a crowded airport and endure getting on an airplane. The airlines don’t want high-speed rail because it cuts their business and profits. It’s about time they didn’t have a monopoly on how people travel.
I think the choo choo is to be made by the Chinese. You can bet Noisome is sending much of this money overseas to his master.
It’s not a train. It’s a fraud.
Everybody who’s making money on it stops making money the day it’s up and running, which is why that hasn’t happened yet – or ever.
It’s the Gravy Train, not a high-speed train.
California needs highspeed rail, and most of the cost has come from buying land that only got more expensive as time went on. While it’s ridiculous that it won’t be finished until at least 2030, it would be an even bigger idiotoc waste to stop the construction. This country needs high speed rail desperately.
Republicans don’t have a platform other than to enrich themselves and their cronies. One only needs to look at the frighteningly stupid appointments Trump is making. Their whole MO is just trolling and not arguing in good faith. California is the 5 largest economy in the world and all the welfare red states love to complain about CAand NY while gladly taking the federal subsidies they pay.
Elon is infamously against any form of public transportation and he will only make decisions that will benefit him and Tesla.
Sorry Chris, but you sound brainwashed. This rail project is a Democrat/union boondoggle, that keeps on sucking up money even after it is done. It’s nothing but greed and waste. We don’t need a rail project that is going to cost every man, woman and child in this state $6900 to build, plus the expenses to run and maintain it after it is built that very few people will use. That’s a joke. Why would anyone with a brain take a three hour rail ride from LA to SF when they can fly there is 40 minutes?
Because their long-game is to shut down the airlines and force you into their high-speed cattle-car trains…
Same with EV’s… run on centrally-provided electricity….
This is all a removal of individual liberties and forced adoption of centrally-controlled transportation resources….wrapped up in a gauzy wrap of virtue-signaling….
@CriticalDfence9,
We’ll said. Also to make everyone dependent on one source of energy source controlled and rationed by the Marxist Democrat government.
Trust.
Once trust is gone it is difficult to restore it. The voters trusted the first estimate of $9 billion. Since that time the project has been shrouded in a web of deceit. This sad state of affairs has been brought on by the promoters of the project.
They got too greedy for their own good and certainly for the good of the citizens of this state and of this nation.
Chris says California needs highspeed rail. Even though I was a “no” on Prop 1a, California voted for high-speed rail.
Let’s call that a point of agreement.
Prop 1a promised:
– L.A. – S.F. in 2:40, non-stop
– $40 fare
– self-supporting, no subsidies necessary
– completed by 2020
– $33 billion price tag
That’s what we should have today. A deal’s a deal. If they had that up and running tomorrow, it’d still be five years over-due and 4x over-budget.
They’re not even going to deliver that. The *new* schedule says L.A. – S.F. in over five hours, which is nothing like what the voters were promised in exchange for their vote ( and our cash ).
If a contractor jacked you around like that on a kitchen remodel job, he’d be doing hard time in The Joint for fraud.
Nothing is more fun than shining a light on grifters stealing money. This is gonna be awesome.
We do need this for the future, I wonder, how many of you have gone to Europe and used their train systems to get across Europe by train, I have , it’s very efficient. From Los Angeles to Las Vegas has already started construction , also in Texas, Florida and other states. Only the East coast, like Washington DC, New York City, Delaware to Connecticut , New Jersey, know how to move people by rail. Yes, money has been miscalculated from the very beginning and it will work in the end. A lot of you who are commenting your opinions are not optimistic, confused, delusional.
I recall voting yes on the prop 1a thinking that I can travel from San diego (yes, San Diego, not los angeles) to San Francisco in a few hours. The project made very little progress, and it should be stopped. I don’t know how tax money is being spent, but every year they are proposing more money with very little benefit to tax payers. I welcome doge, especially if they do all their works transparently.
The “boondoggle” seems to be the money laundering that California is occasionally indicted for, when they can find a person to prosecute.
How complicit CalTrans has been in this, is something I would ask, because like most cross jurisdictional projects, the bureaucracy duplicates itself at every level (fed, local, county, state), and something even the local municipalities have learned, is to pad their projects with Consultants’ “fees” increasing the cost and time to completion, if there ever was a date for it and other projects over the years.
It is correct to call this useless, because the most direct route is not being considered, and the lessons of Europe and even the Eastern cities of the USA should be utilized, except California has always invented their own wheel.. Ego and Greed