Los Angeles protesters defended the project as key to the state’s infrastructure. The transportation secretary said continued federal funding is at stake.
LOS ANGELES—Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced he would direct the Federal Rail Administration (FRA) to conduct a compliance review of funding allocated to California’s long-embattled high-speed rail—and determine whether the project is worthy of continued federal investment.
“President [Donald] Trump has thought about this project,” Duffy said Feb. 20 during a press conference with elected officials at Los Angeles’s historic Union Station. “I think he was very kind when he said this project has been mismanaged. I would agree.”
Duffy said California’s high-speed rail has so far consumed nearly $16 billion in 16 years, with almost nothing to show for it, while timelines and budgets have mushroomed, more than tripling since the project was introduced in 2008. The state rail authority reports it has spent $13 billion from July 2006 through June 2024, while recent estimates for completion run as high as $130 billion.
The rail authority’s inspector general in a Feb. 3 report anticipated further delays and a $6.5-billon funding gap in the 171-mile stretch currently under construction from Bakersfield to Merced in the state’s Central Valley region—an interior segment of the envisioned 400-mile track from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
Duffy said he would direct the FRA to focus on the $4 billion promised by the Biden administration to fund two construction projects planned for this segment.
The investigation, which will review how federal money has been spent and whether the state is in compliance with federal agreements, will help determine whether billions in taxpayer dollars should remain committed, Duffy said.
“We want to make sure the California taxpayer understands that even though they might be excited about this project, [it’s] not going to happen,” Duffy said. “There is no timeline in which you’re going to have a high-speed rail that goes from L.A. to San Francisco.”
If California wants to continue to fund the rail, Duffy said, it can do so. “But we in the Trump administration are going to take a look at whether this project is worthy of continual investment.”
Elected leaders were interrupted by a small but boisterous chorus of protesters.
“The California High-Speed Rail is a long-term project that should not be obstructed by oligarchs who only care about profits in the short term,” Jeff Zhang, 24, told The Epoch Times, suggesting delays are just “part of the cost” of the trial and error involved in building what will be the first major bullet train project in the country.
