Trump puts California High-Speed Rail in crosshairs

President Donald Trump has renewed his efforts to stifle California’s High-Speed Rail project that is currently under construction and would link the Bay Area with greater Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, as he addressed media in the Oval Office, Trump called the project the “worst managed project I think I’ve ever seen,” and said he would be personally investigating the project’s funding.

It’s the latest effort from the Trump Administration to target California’s ambitious transit plan, which is the first publicly funded true high-speed rail system in the nation.

During his first term, he canceled a nearly $1 billion federal grant to the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which he said failed to make meaningful construction progress. President Joe Biden ultimately reinstated that funding, and continued to award more transportation grants to the Authority throughout his presidency.

During his comments to media this week, Trump called the project’s budget overruns the “worst” in the nation’s history, incorrectly claiming it was “hundreds of billions of dollars over budget.”

In a statement released to KTLA Wednesday, the California High-Speed Rail Authority refuted the president’s claims and said his estimates were wildly overblown.

“Of approximately $13 billion spent on the project, $10.5 billion have been funded exclusively by the State of California (not hundreds of billions) and those expenditures have created over $22 billion in economic impact,” the statement reads in part. “Every dollar of the project is accounted for and has been thoroughly reviewed by the independent Office of the Inspector General [whose] sole focus is improving oversight and accountability of the California high-speed rail project.”

While seemingly an obvious task for the Department of Government Efficiency, the temporary government organization meant to sniff out government waste that’s headed by tech billionaire and outspoken CAHSR opponent Elon Musk, Trump said he himself would look into the project to determine what’s taking the project so long to get off the ground.

Currently, about 171 miles of the system in the Central Valley are under design and construction with marked progress made between Merced and Bakersfield in the form of new bridges, land acquisition and utility relocation. While tracks have not yet been laid, dozens of structures have been completed with many more currently underway.

While Trump and other detractors still think the project should be stopped in its tracks, industry experts say one of the main reasons for the sluggish timeline and rising costs is due to constant legal challenges and objections from those who would prefer not a single mile of track be laid.

CAHSR officials have repeatedly stated that the project has reached a “point of no return” and will be completed at some point. But delays in construction, whether due to court challenges or withheld funding, only make the project more expensive. As a result, government watchdog efforts to curb spending might unintentionally have the opposite effect.

As of today, the California High-Speed Rail is still moving forward with its plan to begin service on its “initial operating segment” between Merced and Bakersfield in the early 2030s.

And while the President incorrectly claimed Tuesday that the project itself had abandoned the San Francisco to L.A. route in favor of a pared down version of the system, CAHSR officials say the original plan remains unchanged.

“The majority of the approximately 500-mile system from San Francisco to Los Angeles is fully environmentally cleared and stand shovel-ready for future phases of investment to complete a high-speed rail system that embodies the very best of what California represents – a willingness to dream big, to take on challenges, and to lead the way for the rest of the nation and the world,” the CAHSR statement concluded.

To track current construction progress on the California High-Speed Rail yourself, officials say you can visit BuildHSR.com.