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California Democrats are seeking over $500 million in federal funding for their struggling high-speed rail project, sending a formal request to outgoing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. This comes after the project’s previous funding was cut by President-elect Donald Trump in 2019.
The funding saga began when Governor Gavin Newsom abandoned the original Los Angeles-to-San Francisco bullet train proposal, acknowledging its excessive costs and timeline. This decision prompted Trump to withdraw $1 billion in federal support and demand repayment of taxpayer funds, applying private sector principles to government spending.
The Transportation Appropriations bill contains exactly the right amount of funding for California's High-Speed Rail: $0.
This may be the biggest boondoggle in U.S. history. The NY Times estimates the train won't be completed this century. A lead operator abandoned it to build… pic.twitter.com/hyFzsX9dKX
— Kevin Kiley (@KevinKileyCA) November 7, 2023
While President Biden later restored the funding and supported a separate Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas high-speed rail initiative, Trump’s incoming administration is expected to maintain opposition to the California high-speed rail project, which has been scaled down to connect only interior regions of the state.
On Friday, a group of California Democratic legislators, including Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, along with Representatives Pete Aguilar, Jim Costa, and Zoe Lofgren, submitted their request to Buttigieg. “In a letter addressed to Buttigieg, they called the project ‘essential.'”
The requested funds would support design work for two key segments: the Bakersfield to Palmdale route and the Gilroy to Central Valley connection. Specifically, the money would finance tunnel design through the Tehachapi Mountains and Pacheco Pass.
The project has faced significant challenges since its 2008 approval when California voters authorized $10 billion in bonds. Initial projections estimated a $33 billion cost and 2020 completion date. However, current estimates have skyrocketed to between $89 billion and $128 billion, with the earliest completion date pushed to 2030.
2008: California will have a high-speed rail from Los Angeles to San Francisco by 2020 at a cost of $30 billion.
2023: California will have a train from Bakersfield to Merced hopefully by 2030 at a cost of no less than $170 billion. pic.twitter.com/i6pwWlrymv
— BAY AREA STATE OF MIND (@YayAreaNews) November 13, 2024
This funding request joins other last-minute appeals from California Democrats to the Biden administration. Recently, Biden approved Newsom’s plan to phase out gas-powered vehicle sales by 2035, despite electric vehicle adoption rates falling short of necessary targets. Trump is anticipated to reverse this policy upon taking office, along with other federal electric vehicle mandates.
For his incoming administration, Trump has selected former Republican congressman Sean Duffy as his Transportation Secretary nominee, maintaining the tradition of appointing Midwestern officials to oversee the nation’s transportation infrastructure.
