‘The Big Money Show’ panel discusses President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the plug on California’s high-speed rail project after 16 years of not laying one track.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy terminated $4 billion in unspent federal funding for California’s high-speed rail project Wednesday, citing around $15 billion spent without a single high-speed track laid down.
The total cost of the project, estimated to be around $135 billion, could buy every resident of San Francisco and Los Angeles nearly 200 round-trip flights between the two California cities, according to an announcement Wednesday from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“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,’” President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday.
TRUMP ADMIN PULLS PLUG ON $4B FOR CALIFORNIA’S ‘TRAIN TO NOWHERE’ PROJECT
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy terminated $4 billion in unspent federal funding for California’s high-speed rail project Wednesday. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the move to terminate federal funding illegal and hailed the project’s progress.
“This comes as the project enters the track-laying phase, is actively building across 171 miles, has built more than 50 major railway structures — including bridges, overpasses and viaducts — and completed over 60 miles of guideway,” a press release from Newsom’s office says.
Last month, Duffy released a 300-page report conducted by the Federal Railroad Administration that examined the project. It found missed deadlines, delays, mismanagement, waste, skyrocketing costs, budget shortfalls and overrepresentation of projected ridership.
CONSERVATIVE GROUP CALLS FOR HALT TO FEDERAL FUNDING OF CALIFORNIA HIGH-SPEED RAIL
The report also said there is a $7 billion funding gap to complete a subset of the first phase in the Central Valley from Merced to Bakersfield, known as the Early Operating Segment (EOS).
California’s high-speed rail project was initially touted as a two-phase system connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco and, later, north to Sacramento and south to San Diego. Since then, the project’s footprint has been reduced significantly from an 800-mile segment to a 171-mile segment.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the move to terminate federal funding illegal and hailed the project’s progress. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Timeline:
1981: California works with Japanese partners to explore the feasibility of a high-speed rail corridor in Southern California.
1996: California’s Intercity High-Speed Rail Commission decides that building a high-speed rail is possible. The State Legislature creates the California High-Speed Rail Authority to oversee the rail project.
2008: California voters approve Proposition 1A, allocating $9 billion to the California High-Speed Rail Authority for the rail’s planning and construction.
2015: California holds an official groundbreaking ceremony in Fresno to mark the beginning of construction of the first 29-mile segment of the rail.
2019: The Trump administration announced it was exploring options to reclaim $2.5 billion in federal funds spent by California on the rail and that it intended to cancel $928 million in federal grants not yet paid for the project.
SEC DUFFY TO INVESTIGATE LA’S LONG-DELAYED HIGH-SPEED RAIL PROJECT: ‘WHO GOT THE CASH?’
2023: The Biden administration sends California nearly $3.1 billion in federal taxpayer funds for high-speed rail.
February 2024: The project’s first construction package, which covers 22.5 miles in the Central Valley, reaches “substantial completion.”
June 2024: The 38-mile Palmdale-to-Burbank segment of the rail is environmentally cleared.
Last month, Duffy released a 300-page report conducted by the Federal Railroad Administration that examined the project. (Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg / Getty Images)
January 2025: Newsom joins local leaders to commemorate the start of the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s Railhead Project, which they say is the first step to laying track.
February 2025: President Trump calls for an audit of California’s high-speed rail project.
June 2025: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy releases a scathing report exposing what he says is an infeasible high-speed rail project.
July 2025: Duffy announces the termination of $4 billion in unspent federal funding by the Federal Railroad Administration for the project.
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Newsom’s office and the California High-Speed Rail Authority did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Stepheny Price and Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
