California’s long-promised high-speed train project, first approved in 2008, has hit lots of roadblocks in its development process, and now it may be looking at the end of the road. The Trump administration’s Department of Transportation released a report this week that does not paint a pretty picture of the project, and DOT head Sean Duffy has given California just over a month to respond to concerns or face having $4 billion in government funding rescinded, according to Reuters.
The threat to cut off California follows a 315-page report published by the Federal Railroad Administration that claims California has missed several deadlines related to the high-speed rail and has failed to identify how it will secure $7 billion in funding to build a segment of rail between Merced and Bakersfield, California, which it needs to secure by next summer in order for the project to move forward. The report concludes, in quite Trumpian language, that California “conned the taxpayer out of its $4 billion investment, with no viable plan to deliver even that partial segment on time.”
The Department of Transportation gave California until mid-July to respond to the report, threatening to terminate federal contracts if it fails to sufficiently address concerns raised in the report. The California High-Speed Rail Authority called the report “misguided,” according to a report from the Los Angeles Times, and said it will issue a formal response soon. “We remain firmly committed to completing the nation’s first true high-speed rail system connecting the major population centers in the state,” a spokesperson for the agency said.
Trump has been on California’s ass about the rail project basically since he returned to office. His administration launched a yet-to-be-completed review of a $3.1 billion federal grant to help fund construction back in February, and last month he singled out the project during a joint appearance with Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada, stating, “That train is the worst cost overrun I’ve ever seen,” and “This government is not going to pay.”
The scrutiny from Trump and company isn’t exactly a surprise to officials involved in the high-speed rail’s buildout, as officials signaled earlier this year that there may be funding shortfalls from the federal government on the horizon. And while plenty of people are frustrated by how long the California rail project has taken to come together and how much it costs, the federal government really is not on the hook for that much of it. Per the LA Times, California has paid for 82% of the project, relying on federal grants for just 18% of funding.
While California’s high-speed rail has had plenty of issues—mostly inflicted by politics—the “train to nowhere” label that it often gets hit with no longer matches the picture on the ground. More than 119 miles of rail have been laid between Merced and Bakersfield, and the project is close enough to completion that abandoning it at this point would be more wasteful than finishing it, especially with communities along the route expecting a potential economic boom once it is up and running. But good luck telling that to Trump (and Elon Musk who has opposed it from the beginning).
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