U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday threatened to halt all funding to California’s high-speed rail project, calling it a “boondoggle” with no viable path forward.
In a 310-page report and a letter to the CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, Duffy alleged “a trail of project delays, mismanagement, waste and skyrocketing costs” that have cost taxpayers approximately $6.9 billion and failed to lay any track.
“I promised the American people we would be good stewards of their hard-earned tax dollars. This report exposes a cold, hard truth: CHSRA has no viable path to complete this project on time or on budget,” Duffy said. “CHSRA is on notice — if they can’t deliver on their end of the deal, it could soon be time for these funds to flow to other projects that can achieve President Trump’s vision of building great, big, beautiful things again.”
He gave the CHSRA 37 days to respond to the report, after which the grants could be terminated.
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Aerial image shows construction work on the Hanford Viaduct, the largest high-speed rail structure in the Central Valley, as part of the California High Speed Rail project in Hanford on Feb. 12, 2025. The structure is over 6,000 feet long. (Getty Images) -
Aerial images show massive pillars that will comprise the base of the California High-Speed Rail Hanford Viaduct in Hanford, California on Jan. 29, 2024. (KTLA)
Voters first approved $10 billion in bond money in 2008 to cover one-third of the estimated cost of building the rail line, which would connect Los Angeles to San Francisco, with the aim of having trains up and running by 2020.
The current construction involves only a 171-mile segment from Merced to Bakersfield in California’s Central Valley, which the authority hopes to begin testing in 2028.
In 2023, then-President Joe Biden awarded a $3 billion grant to help officials complete the first phase of the project. That grant came after he reinstated a $1 billion grant to the High-Speed Rail Authority that the first Trump administration had previously blocked.
KTLA has reached out to the California High-Speed Rail Authority for comment.
