California disputed a Trump administration report detailing how it has failed to complete a high-speed rail project on schedule by explaining that the state wants to spend $1 billion annually for the next 20 years to finish the âinitialâ segment of the project.
Californiaâs High Speed Rail Authority said in a statement that a Department of Transportation (DOT) report released Wednesday was âmisguidedâ in saying that the state is violating terms of federal grants for the infrastructure, which was slated to be built by around 2020. The state agency said California has made progress, pointing to the fact that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsomâs proposed annual allocation of $1 billion to complete an âinitial operating segmentâ of the project over the next two decades.
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âThe Authority strongly disagrees with the conclusions, which are misguided and do not reflect the substantial progress made to deliver High-Speed Rail in California,â the California High Speed Rail Authority said, adding that most funding has come from the state level. The authority said Newsomâs proposal to the legislature for funding over the next 20 years provides âthe necessary resources to complete the projectâs initial operating segment.â
California officials initially intended the project to be a âbullet trainâ system connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles and to complete it by about 2020, but the projected cost has risen from $33 billion to more than $100 billion in the years since. An official webpage detailing progress on the project says 96 miles of guideway have been completed out of a 171-mile segment of the rail system, while 463 miles of another portion are âreadyâ for construction.
âEven with continued federal support, the project is far short of the funding needed to finish just a fraction of the track,â the DOT said Wednesday, warning that California has 37 days to reply before it may cancel roughly $4 billion in federal funding for the project. California has received $6.9 billion in total federal dollars for the rail system to date, the DOT said, with the agency adding that the project is a âboondoggle.â
Golden State voters approved the first round of funding in 2008, and construction began in 2015. Despite lackluster progress, at least $600 million was spent on environmental reviews for the project as of September 2023, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported.
Newsomâs funding request for the rail system comes as a $12 billion deficit looms over Californiaâs budget for the coming fiscal year, CalMatters reported. The California High Speed Rail Authority pledged to âcorrect the recordâ in its formal response to the DOTâs outreach, but did not elaborate further.
âIf they canât deliver on their end of the deal, it could soon be time for these funds to flow to other projects that can achieve President Trumpâs vision of building great, big, beautiful things again,â Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday about California.
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