Newsom: Trump’s funding termination of California high-speed-rail reeks of politics
The Trump administration pulled over $4 billion from California’s high speed rail project. Governor Newsom described this move as something that reeked of politics… Aimed at punishing California. Newsom claimed that this move would put jobs and livelihoods “on the line”. Newsom is not taking this “sitting down”; California intends to sue the federal government to stop this move.
From Fox News:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a lawsuit against the Trump administration following the cancellation of more than $4 billion in federal funds for the state’s high-speed rail project.
“Trump’s termination of federal grants for California high-speed rail reeks of politics. It’s yet another political stunt to punish California,” Newsom stated in a news release.
“In reality, this is just a heartless attack on the Central Valley that will put real jobs and livelihoods on the line. We’re suing to stop Trump from derailing America’s only high-speed rail actively under construction,” the governor continued.
The lawsuit alleges the termination was driven by “petty, political retribution” rather than objective concerns, targeting California due to President Donald Trump’s hostility toward the state.
While the lawsuit characterizes the decision as “petty, political retribution,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy justified the termination of $4 billion in unspent federal funding by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), citing 16 years of failure, no completed high-speed track, and escalating costs.
Duffy declared the project, dubbed the “train to nowhere,” a mismanaged and over-budget “boondoggle.”
“This is California’s fault. Governor Newsom and the complicit Democrats have enabled this waste for years. Federal dollars are not a blank check — they come with a promise to deliver results,” Duffy said in a statement.
Additional Reading:
Price, S. (2025, July 18). California sues over billions lost in high-speed rail funds as Newsom battles Trump administration. Fox News. Link.
Category: Democrats, Donald Trump, Society
That checks out. The only reason they got Federal Funding was due to politics.
I forgot what year they started and got no where because of envirementalists and plans to take away peoples homes for the tracks; I know it was a number of years ago. If they would have started on the right track, maybe the job would have been completed. I heard that a lot of Do Re Mis went to architects on the planning that never was.
It depends upon where you hold the ruler. 1993 is when the commission was created, although it wasn’t an approved ballot measure for funding until 2008.
Thanks for the info 5JC, I’ll keep track on the situation.
But it was politics when Joe Biden stopped the construction of the wall along the Mexico border.
How much of the money wasted on that biblically huge boondoggle has just gone into the pockets of politicians and their cronies? The Transcontinental Railroad was built in SIX fucking years, and California has only built enough to keep the propaganda going for its suckers, I mean supporters.
To be fair, when they built the Transcontinental Railroad, they only had to deal with the weather, the terrain, and hostile Native Americans. This train to nowhere is up against unions, corrupt politicians, environmentalists, and no expectation of success.
Don’t forget the hundreds of grifters and the grifting contractors who are overcharging so they can pay kickbacks, so they can continue to collect for little progress.
The entire project smells like a giant hack-a-rama with jobs without purpose for “managers” without purpose other than bloating payroll and delivering no train between any two points…and five years late thus far with “testing” perhaps in another three years totaling eight years behind the original schedule.
The project costs have been projected to now require 100 billion dollars, if 4 percent will de-rail the project it probably never should have been undertaken in the first place.
$135B my friend. The cost over runs alone were $95B. My other disappeared so I assume I made a mistake somewhere.
As all politicians like to point out what’s thirty billion or so among friends?
It remains far too easy for these government folks to spend other people’s money.
Or: Why Crackheads shouldn’t be given a credit card with no limit.
It’s your utopia, Mister Newscum. You Fing pay for it.
The man has dreams. If it were done today at that price it would be the 4th most expensive infrastructure project in all of human history.
I have to hand it California. They went and cleaned up their Wikipedia page on the rail THIS WEEK and are trying to gaslight people with “fact checking” websites into thinking everything is ok with the project when nothing could be further from the truth. the push from the left media has been well coordinated. Those guys are on it, too bad they didn’t put that much effort into the actual project.
The project is an unmitigated disaster. To call it a Biblical Boondoggle with no end in sight doesn’t do it justice. It literally has been delayed by an entire generation and has the worst cost over runs of any infrastructure project in the history of the entire world, and they haven’t even really started yet. With it’s current budget of $135,000,000,000 the $4,000,000,000 Trump is clawing back is paltry, considering it has already overrun it’s original budget by $95,000,000,000. So really what is another 4 Billion? that isn’t even five percent of the over run.
You might wonder where the money has gone so far? If anyone guessed Politico subscriptions, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and more you win a prize. Half a billion on an environmental services contract if you are the “right” contractor.
And time? Time is a concept for mere mortals to worry about. Construction of track was supposed to begin in 2015 and end in 2020, for the whole thing. Current dates show the first section maybe finished in 2030 and the remainder in 2040. That is actually 25 years past the due date so more than a generation. The California IG says it will never happen by then. You might wonder how much track they have built so far? You would be right to wonder, it’s 1600 feet. A little bit less than the typical track around a high school football field.
But that 1600 feet track is for the length of the railroad that will experience the most passengers. By the way, what is the length of rail cars that will be used on these routes? Could it be…1600 feet?
If only it were in a circle they could put a giant Redwood Christmas Tree in the middle. They do still have Redwoods? California didn’t cut them all down to make the High Speed rail?
America is a car country. I don’t see the need to waste billions in passenger rail.
If you lived in Santa Clara county, aka Silicon Valley, and had to drive here (Mountain View) from Tracy or Gilroy … then you’d understand. Traffic here is terrible. Not as bad (yet) as just prior to COVID … but still pretty bad.
But that high-speed rail project was a boondoggle and needed cutting.
Every morning the traffic reports moan about the “Tracy Triangle” and yet there are only 4 trains each day from Tracy to Mountain View. If people don’t want to use the train through the triangle, what would make them want to ride a train from LA to SF?
But wait there is more. Delayed rail projects are a thing in California. Santa Clara County was supposed to build a BART station that was due to be completed in 2026 for $4,000,000,000. It came in early under budget.
Just kidding. It’s new date is 2037 and cost is now $12,400,000,000. At least they didn’t buy rail cars for the non existent train station. Fooled you twice. They totally bought rail cars for hundreds of millions of dollars for the station that they cant use because there is no track. Some of you may have heard about not putting the cart before the horse but if you have you don’t work for California Government.
In accounting and finance, we call it sunk cost, and the Cali high speed rail has sunk way too much money.
Sunk costs are past expenses that cannot be recovered and should not influence future decisions. These costs, whether in money, time, or effort, are irrelevant to current and future choices because they are already spent. Ignoring sunk costs is crucial for rational decision-making.
The idea was LA to SF in a few hours, so where do the build it? Not up the coast which is the most direct route. No, up the middle of the state where it twist and turns with numerous stops. In other words, anything but high speed. The most California thing ever…a railway to nowhere except they haven’t laid any track in almost 2 decades of work.
In logical arguments we call that the fallacy of sunk costs. They should learn a lesson from the Texas Super Collider.
Where’s the high speed rail Gavin?? You’ve had since 2008 to build it! Been trying to make it a thing since 1996 if you count when the authority for the project was established.
So, I’ll ask again: where is it?!
(I know where the money for it went and it rhymes with lorruption)
Just in… SGM at Ft Hood busted for child sex abuse (again): https://www.yahoo.com/news/fort-hood-senior-noncommissioned-officer-205749162.html
In unrelated news a number of Los Angeles County Deputies were killed and wounded in an explosion at their bomb squad compound this morning. It appears to be an accident at this time.
Prayer are requested by the sheriff for all of those involved.
https://nypost.com/2025/07/18/us-news/explosion-at-lasd-training-facility-leaves-several-dead/
Kinda like high speed internet.
The people of California should be thrilled that this demoncrat cash cow that has made the power elite democraps rich, is over. Well not really, as gov pothead/newsom will just tax the local populace to make up the difference. My personal opinion is the line should be finished as a bus route and used to ship illegals south. Maybe they could put some rubber wheels on those railroad cars and just have a long caravan. Like they do in Australia. Good way to recoup those lost dollars that went to purchase railroad cars without tracks.
Hi All, I’m back from my travels. Now I gotta get ready for hunting season. It’s tough being retired .
If there was ever a need for high speed rail and if there was ever a chance for profit in a high speed rail; some train company with deep pockets would have built it years ago. Governor Nuisance wants high speed rail as a monument to his legacy. Gavin, buddy, there’s plenty of room in the Capitol Park for a statue of you, it could be paid for with the money that has fallen off of the desks and tables at the State House.
There isn’t a train company with deep enough pockets in the entire world to build this railroad. Even DB (the largest railroad in the world) has a market Cap of around $50B.
And you are 100% correct, there is absolutely no way to make a profit with this insane idea. The rail market of the ENTIRE PLANET is only $350B total, this includes shipping. California was supposed to have 50M people by 2040 and now it might have 40M, maybe.
The market for California Rail from SANFRAN to LA is planned to be 31M riders a year. This is a ridiculous number, and likely not even possible. Currently there are only 7 million passenger seats (max) between LA and San Fran a year, including transfer flights. Lets say by some miracle they can find and move 10 million passengers a year who want to make the trip.
It costs about $100 to fly between the cities so there is no point in charging more because no one will ever pay more for a train than a plane.
So how long would it take to payoff the system with 10 million at $100 each?. If no other costs were involved it would only take 135 years at current budget with 100% of the fare going to pay for the line.
So you are correct, there isn’t a board of directors on the planet with the capitol or the ineptitude to sign off on this idea.
What’s the old saying about trains vs planes? I’ve heard, “The train takes twice as long and costs twice as much.”
Governor Nuisance makes the case Europe has one, Japan has one; California as the worlds whatever largest economy should have one. How about taking that amount of money and spending it on education? Then, maybe we’d have something to brag about. Or, use the money to pay off the debt Nuisance’s brand of socialism has brought us. Again, we’d have something to brag about. Perhaps, he could go to one of the few hobby shops that are left in California and buy a nice model train set and put it up in his attic; it worked for Goering.
Democrats’ collectivist envy at work again… funny you should bring up mustache’s pals:
Nowadays building just a freight train Right of Way from scratch to carry say, 40 to 50 mile per hour freight trains will cost around $1 1/2 to 2 1/2 million dollars per mile, and this is to be for a RoW capable of carrying passenger trains up to 200 MPH? Yeah, we’re talking ELECTRIC which will gracefully add a fat chunk to the cost because you’re now talking about the necessary catenary wire and the maintenance of it, and oh, the electricity? It wouldn’t power itself if they ever finished it, the dynamic braking would only go so far AND you need trains going downhill to use that. California has also gone full head-up-the-ass on “Green Energy” which we have seen is another boondoggle, so there would be brown-outs and blackouts necessary to keep the damned trains running! The Row is planned to go through mountainous terrain which greatly increases the cost of construction, and nowadays legal fees because of every gaggle of enviro-kooks who want to sue to stop it because they THINK it might impede say, the three-toed farting cockroach, not to mention the NIMBYs as well.
Let’s see…my tax money, taken from my pocket up here in Minnesota, going 2000 miles west to build an over priced rail system for the state of California DIDN’T reek of politics? But now that same money being taken away from Goober Nuisance IS?
Fuck him.
Meanehile… how Russkies are in the war in Ukraine (have gotten worse to people since WW2): https://www.yahoo.com/news/inside-horrifying-business-returning-ukraines-081302678.html
For non-Californians a quick summary of California’s High -Speed Rail Project:
Goal:
Los Angeles to San Francisco in 2¾ hours on a single high-speed train
Cost – 33 Billion
Completion – by 2020
The Reality:
No track yet exists between LA and SF.
Only a small Central Valley segment (Merced to Bakersfield) is under construction.
The project is years behind schedule, vastly over budget ($73–102 billion), and lacks a plan or funding for full buildout.
Billions in state and federal funds have already been spent, with no operational service yet.
The federal government is not “cutting” existing funds already awarded — it’s declining to commit new funds in 2025 due to the lack of realistic timelines or completed segments.
Theme song titles for the boondoggle.
Do you know the way to Merced/Bakersfield.
I left my high-speed train in San Francisco.
California Scheming.
Train in vain.