(The Center Square) – The Trump administration officially terminated its funding of California’s 171-mile high speed rail segment in the state’s more sparsely populated Central Valley, citing an inability to complete the project by the 2033 deadline.
The administration also noted there’s no plan for closing a $7 billion funding gap on the $36.3 billion segment.
“[California High Speed Rail Authority] does not have a viable path to complete the [Early Operating Segment] by 2033 per its commitment,” wrote Federal Railroad Administration Acting Administrator Drew Feeley in a final determination letter. “CHSRA has a $7 billion funding gap (based on FRA’s conservative estimates) to complete the EOS, with no credible plan to secure additional funds.”
The notice terminates the $4 billion committed by the FRA to CHSRA, effective immediately.
Notably, the initial segment of the EOS would have been a 119-mile segment connecting Madera, which has a population of nearly 70,000, and Poplar Avenue in Kern County, which is near Shafter, a small city of just over 20,000 residents northwest of Bakersfield.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom responded by tying the rail project to international geopolitical competition with China.
“Trump wants to hand China the future and abandon the Central Valley,” said Newsom in a statement. “We won’t let him.”
California Republican legislators in turn shared their confusion about the relationship between the state’s high speed rail program and China.
“He is so clueless that he actually believes that a train project utilizing antiquated technology, that is billions of dollars over budget and behind schedule is the ‘key’ to beating China? That a bullet train to help urbanites zip through on the way to LA will ‘help’ the Central Valley instead of water and energy investments, cutting high utilities and gas costs, and fast tracking next-gen AI and other technology to leap past China,” said California Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher, R-East Nicolaus.
“Meanwhile, he has hamstrung our economy, raised our cost of living beyond belief, and literally forced us to buy Chinese solar panels and electric vehicles,” the continued Gallagher.
Newsom just reauthorized funding from the state’s cap-and-trade program, which charges companies for carbon dioxide emissions, to provide about $1 billion per year for the project, which appears to be continuing without federal funding.
