Sacramento, California (AP) – Trump administration revoked federal funding for California high -speed railway project Wednesday, the intensification of uncertainty as to how the State will be good on its delayed promise to build a high -speed train for the shuttle between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The American Transport Department has announced that it fell $ 4 billion in funding For the project, weeks after signaling, that would. Overall, just under a quarter of the project funding comes from the federal government. The rest came from the state, mainly through an obligation and money approved by the voters of its ceiling and exchange program.
President Donald Trump and transport secretary Sean Duffy both criticized the project as a “train for nowhere”.
“The railway that has been promised to us still does not exist, and will never do it,” wrote Trump on Truth Social. “This project was very expensive, too regulated and never delivered.”
The loss marks the last blow for California by the Trump administration, which has blocked a first nation rule To eliminate the sale of new gas cars, launched surveys on University admission policies And threatened Transgender girls are authorized to participate in sports of girls.
It also occurs while project managers for railways are looking for private investments to help pay for its estimated price of more than $ 100 billion.
Voters approved the project for the first time in 2008 and it had to operate this decade. But cost estimates have constantly increased and its chronology has pushed back.
State officials are now focusing on the construction of a 171 -mile section (275 kilometers) connecting the central cities of Bakersfield and Merced which should operate by 2033. The California High Speed Rail Authority should publish a report this summer to state legislators with a financing plan and a schedule updated for the project.
Officials of the authority wrote in a letter earlier this month that the Trump administration decided to revoke funding before carefully revising the project. They noted that more than 50 structures have already been built, in particular sub-bassiers, viaducts and bridges to separate the railway from roads for safety.
“Canceling these subsidies without reason is not only wrong – it is illegal,” the CEO of authority Ian Choudri said in a statement on Wednesday. “These are legally binding agreements, and the authority has respected all obligations, as confirmed by the repeated federal examinations, as recently as February 2025.”
The authority asked potential private investors to express their interest by the end of the month.
Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom said the state would keep “all options on the table” to combat the revocation of federal funds.
“Trump wants to give China the future and abandon the central valley. We will not leave it,” he said in a statement.
The state has “no viable plan” to finish even the central valley segment, said Drew Feeley, acting administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration of the Transport Service, in a report published last month. He described the “History of Broken Promises” project and a waste of dollars of taxpayers.
The Democrats of California also criticized project expenditure. The member of the Democratic Assembly Rebecca Bauer-Kahan said during a low-budget hearing earlier this year that his voters “massively believe” high-speed rail expenses “have been irresponsible”.
Newsom plans to extend the state ceiling and exchange program, a key financing source for the project which should expire at the end of 2030, until 2045.
The program sets a limit of decline in the total quantity of greenhouse gas emissions that significant issuers can release. These polluters can buy State compensation necessary to pollute, and around 45% of this money falls into what is known as greenhouse gas reduction funds, according to the independent emission advisory committee, a group of experts that examine the program.
The fund helps pay climate and transport projects, including high -speed rail.
The Bullet Train project receives 25% of the money from the fund, which ends up being a little less or a little more than a billion dollars a year, depending on the year. Newsom in May proposed to guarantee $ 1 billion a year for the fund’s project, but the legislators did not accept this.
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Austin is a member of the body for the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national services program that places journalists from local editorial rooms to report on under-cover issues. Follow Austin on X: @Sophieadanna
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This story was published for the first time on July 16, 2025. It was updated on July 17, 2025 to correct that the segment between Bakersfield and Merced is 171 miles, not 119 miles.
