A rendering shows a planned high-speed rail train as it enters a station. The rendering was displayed during an informational open house by the California High-Speed Rail Authority in downtown Fresno, California, on May 1, 2024.
Craig Kohlruss | Fresno Bee | Tribune News Service | Getty Images
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has formally terminated $4 billion in federal funding for the California High-Speed Rail Authority, weeks after putting the CHSRA’s bullet train project on notice.
In a termination letter to the authority’s CEO, Ian Choudri, dated Wednesday, Federal Railroad Administration acting Administrator Drew Feeley wrote that the CHSRA “breached the commitments” it made in its original agreements, specifically by displaying an “inability to complete” the goals it set out to reach.
“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 in a statement. “It’s time for this boondoggle to die.”
The railroad authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a social media post, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state will be “exploring all options to fight this illegal action.”
President Donald Trump praised his administration’s work in terminating the project in a Truth Social post Wednesday night, calling Newsom “incompetent.”
“The Railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will,” Trump wrote. “This project was Severely Overpriced, Overregulated, and NEVER DELIVERED.”
The high-speed rail efforts began in 2009 with the goal of building a train that could travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco in under three hours. Newsom trimmed that vision a decade later, setting out to connect just a 170-mile stretch of land between Merced and Bakersfield.
The current iteration of the project was projected to cost around $22 billion, according to the Federal Railroad Administration, with a projected end date of 2033.
A June report produced by the Trump administration concluded that the project had “no viable path” to completion, and alleged breaches of its federal contracts, including overdue deadlines and funding gaps.
The railroad system told CNBC at the time that most of the project’s funding is provided by the state, not the federal government.
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