A review of the project found it was behind schedule, with a $7 billion funding gap and no capacity to electrify related infrastructure by deadline.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced the cancellation of funding for California’s High-Speed Rail project, citing delays and affordability issues, according to a late July 16 Truth Social post.
“To the Law abiding, Tax paying, Hardworking Citizens of the United States of America, I am thrilled to announce that I have officially freed you from funding California’s disastrously overpriced, ‘HIGH SPEED TRAIN TO NOWHERE,’” Trump said.
The project has already cost taxpayers $15 billion, without yet seeing any returns. “The Railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will. This project was Severely Overpriced, Overregulated, and NEVER DELIVERED,” Trump said.
Trump commended Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for pulling the plug on the “ill-conceived and unnecessary” project.
The Federal Railroad Administration terminated approximately $4 billion in unspent federal funding for the rail project, Duffy said in an official project cancellation statement.
Duffy said that after spending around $15 billion over a period of 16 years, the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) failed to lay even a single high-speed track. According to the department, the projected total cost of the project has come to around $135 billion.
“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,” Duffy said.
The planned high-speed rail covers 800 miles and connects San Francisco to Los Angeles-Anaheim, with train speeds of up to 200 miles per hour.
The transportation department under President Joe Biden awarded the project about $4 billion. The San Francisco-to-Los Angeles project was initially supposed to be completed for $33 billion by 2020.
