SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California High Speed Rail Authority is suing the Trump administration over its termination of $4 billion in previously awarded federal funding for the state’s high speed project.
A press release from Gov. Gavin Newsom says the lawsuit alleges the Federal Railroad Administration’s termination of the funding is political retribution “motivated by President Trump’s personal animus toward California and the high-speed rail project, not by facts on the ground.” Newsom called it “another political stunt to punish California.”
The suit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the funds were being pulled in a July 16 Department of Transportation press release, saying in that release that Newsom and California Democrats were responsible for “enabling this waste,” and that the CHSRA’s “mismanagement and incompetence” showed the agency could not deliver the project [see “FRA kills funding …,” Trains News Wire, July 16, 2025]. The termination followed an FRA view that said the high speed project was in violation of the terms of its federal grants in nine key areas; the head of the CHSRA has disputed those findings.
Reuters reports that Duffy said earlier that he was confident the administration would defeat any legal challenge, and that a spokesman for Duffy said the suit was a plan to “waste even more taxpayer dollars.”
If only more progress had been made .
The pity is that if all these billions of dollars that have been wasted were spent instead to improve conventional higher speed rail we might have something useful by now. Like food service on the San Joaquin trains for a beginning.
Typical liberal stuff: waist billions of $$; give millions of $$ (allegedly) to supposed “Union” workers; what a HOOT, watch out for BS “Southern California” territory of Spotted Owls; what carpe deim’
Questions: How long has this boondoggle been ongoings?
How many miles of ACTUAL trackage been laid?
What poop
While agreeing with Mr. Landey, I would add retirbution, my foot. This has been a classic boondoggle since it’s inception, with a 1300% overrun and counting for negligble results. No surprise to Trains readers who, if I remember correctly, predicted the outcome if not every step back in ’08. In the words of comedienne Elayne Boosler “A fortune pissed away on this one.”
One more lawsuit (it’s added up to a million by now) that puts the court into the legislative arena.
California wants the court to decide whether or not the withholding of funds is good and just. That’s not what courts are for. That is not within the jurisdiction of the court. The only issue before the court ought to be whether or not the federal administration has the legal power to withhold the funds.