California’s high-speed rail system is under construction in the Central Valley, but needs tens of billions of dollars to connect to San Francisco and Los Angeles.
California High-Speed Rail Authority
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state is suing the Trump Administration after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced his agency is clawing back $4 billion of federal funds previously awarded for high-speed rail construction, the latest challenge for the country’s costliest infrastructure project.
Duffy this week said the decision to take back funds awarded by the Federal Railroad Administration during the Obama and Biden Administrations came after a compliance review that determined the California High-Speed Rail Authority “simply cannot meet its obligations under the grant agreement.” He also cited the state’s failure to identify a sustainable source of funds to cover the full cost of connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles, estimated to be as high as $135 billion, as justification for canceling the grants.
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Newsom’s office said its suit alleges that the cancellation of agreements is “political retribution, motivated by President Trump’s animus toward California and the high-speed rail project, not by facts on the ground.” Currently, construction work is underway on a 119-mile section of the state’s Central Valley, between the cities of Fresno and Bakersfield. Ian Choudri, the bullet train’s new CEO and a rail and infrastructure veteran, is developing a new business plan intended to lower costs, accelerate construction and add private sector partners.
“This is just a heartless attack on the Central Valley that will put real jobs and livelihoods on the line,” Newsom said in an emailed statement. “We’re suing to stop Trump from derailing America’s only high-speed rail actively under construction.”
During his first term, Trump took back a $900 million award to the state, citing similar reasons. President Joe Biden restored the grant and provided an additional $3.1 billion for the project from funds set aside for high-speed rail in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Brightline West, a private rail project intended to connect Las Vegas to suburban Los Angeles, also got $3 billion of federal rail funds and is raising at least $9 billion more. It’s doing prep work for the future line that will run through the Mojave Desert, but hasn’t started heavy construction.
The U.S. currently has no high-speed trains capable of hitting speeds of 200 miles per hour or more, unlike dozens of nations, including Japan, China, South Korea, France, Germany and Spain. California’s project, approved by voters in 2008 with a $10 billion bond for initial construction costs, had an estimated price tag of $45 billion–long before the routing had been determined and the land acquired. The slow, tedious work of purchasing hundreds of miles of property, along with extensive environmental reviews, added more than a decade to its construction timeline and caused its cost to triple.
Though track hasn’t been laid, construction employing more than 15,000 people is active on a 171-mile section of the future line, with over 50 bridges, overpasses and viaducts built and 60 miles of guideway completed, according to the Governor’s office.
“Canceling these grants without cause isn’t just wrong–it’s illegal,” Choudri said in a statement. “These are legally binding agreements and the Authority has met every obligation, as confirmed by repeated federal reviews, as recently as February 2025.”
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