Federal Funding for California High-Speed Rail Under Review

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) will “review” federal funding for California’s high-speed rail project, a decades-in-the-making rail line designed to connect the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles.

According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle by Rachel Swan, “The review would ‘help determine’ whether the money should ‘remain committed’ to the railway’s first segment between Merced and Bakersfield in the Central Valley, spokespeople for the U.S. Department of Transportation said in a news release, casting the future of the project in jeopardy.” In a press release announcing the audit, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the project “massively over-budget and delayed.”

The project has 171 miles of track already under construction in the Central Valley, where the first segment is expected to open. “In the coming years, state officials hope to link high-speed rail to two other bullet train lines – the High Desert Corridor in Los Angeles and the privately-owned Brightline West route from Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga (San Bernardino County).”

The project gained approval for the final southern segment of its route from the California High-Speed Rail Authority Board of Directors in July of 2024 and was counting on a $3.4 billion federal grant to extend the line from San Jose to San Francisco.