Trump administration pulls additional $175 million from California high-speed rail project

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pulled $175 million from California’s high-speed rail project on Tuesday, just a month after canceling $4 billion in federal grants.

Duffy cited four projects related to the broader California high-speed rail initiative that would lose funding, including track extensions, grade separations, design work and the construction of a rail station in Madera. Duffy said the full project has thus far incurred $15 billion in costs, calling it a “boondoggle.”

“In twenty years, California has not been able to lay a single track of high-speed rail,” Duffy said in a statement. “The waste ends here. As of today, the American people are done investing in California’s failed experiment. Instead, my Department will focus on making travel great again by investing in well-managed projects that can make projects like high-speed rail a reality.”

In a statement to CNBC, the California High-Speed Rail Authority said the group moved this week to purchase track components to work toward completion of the high-speed rail within the next year.

“This is a continuation of the Trump Administration’s illegal, politically motivated, and baseless attack on California High-Speed Rail and Central Valley communities,” a spokesperson said. “The facts are clear: California is delivering the only true high-speed system under construction in North America.”

Duffy also directed the Federal Railroad Administration on Tuesday to review all obligated grants for the project.

In July, the administration canceled all of the railroad group’s federal funding following an FRA report that found “serious concerns” with the project’s viability, including an alleged inability to complete the project by its deadline and claims of breached terms of its contract.

California filed to sue the Department of Transportation in July for its “illegal” action. In an op-ed in The Sacramento Bee, Duffy replied by writing that California Gov. Gavin Newsom “has no clue what functional government looks like.”

The project was originally envisioned after a state ballot measure passed in 2008 with the goal of connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles in under three hours, but it was later cut down to serve a shorter 170-mile stretch between Merced and Bakersfield.

According to the FRA, the current iteration of the plan was projected to cost around $22 billion with an estimated end date of 2033.

The railroad system previously told CNBC that most of its funding is provided by the state, not the government.