The Trump administration canceled $4 billion in funding for the project in July.
California dropped its lawsuit this week against the Trump administration over the federal government’s decision to pull $4 billion in funding for the state’s long-delayed high-speed rail project.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority filed a notice of voluntary dismissal on Dec. 23 in the case with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. The dismissal is without prejudice, meaning the lawsuit could be refiled in the future.
The dismissal came two weeks after U.S. District Judge Dale Drozd rejected the U.S. Department of Justice’s argument that the authority should have filed its lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
The U.S. Department of Transportation withdrew the funding in July from the bullet train project, which is supposed to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles.
The Trump administration has said the authority had “no viable plan” to finish work on a large segment of the project in the state’s Central Valley. Both President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy have criticized the delayed project as a “train to nowhere.”
California voters approved the project’s initial $10 billion bond in 2008. The project’s price tag was originally expected to be $33 billion, with a completion date in 2020. Costs have ballooned to between $89 billion and $128 billion, with completion projected by 2033.
So far, 50 key structures—bridges, overpasses, underpasses, viaducts, and 70 miles of guideway—have been completed.
The authority sued in federal court on July 17 to reinstate the funds, calling the funding cut politically motivated and unlawful. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said at the time that the federal funding reduction was “a political stunt to punish California.”
The lawsuit argued that Trump’s actions are part of a long-running pattern of political retaliation, pointing to his first administration’s attempt to revoke high-speed rail funding the day after California sued to block his emergency declaration for a border wall.
