President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he had canceled $4 billion in federal funding for California’s beleaguered and delayed high-speed rail project — what critics call the “train to nowhere.”
The project has been plagued for years by cost overruns, logistical problems, and a lack of consumer demand.
A rough timeline of events suggests the rise — and fall — of what was once considered a promising idea:
- 2008: California voters pass Proposition 1A, which authorizes a $10 billion bond to fund a high-speed rail line (“bullet train”) to connect San Francisco and L.A. in under three hours by 2020 for a total of $33 billion.
- 2009: The Obama administration approves over $2 billion in stimulus funds for California’s high-speed rail.
- 2010: California approves guidelines for the high-speed rail line, and Jerry Brown is elected governor. He champions the high-speed rail project as an effort to reduce emissions and to combat climate change.
- 2014: Breitbart News reports that the high-speed rail project will not actually be fast enough to complete the trip in under three hours. Numerous environmental and engineering challenges continue to delay the project.
- 2015: Amid costs that have ballooned to $68 billion, with deadlines creeping later and later, Gov. Brown pushes forward with the plan, laying down a symbolic track and calling critics of the project “cowards.”
- 2019: Newly-inaugurated Gov. Gavin Newsom cancels much of the high-speed rail project because it “would cost too much and … would take too long.” However, he wants to build a Central Valley portion of the project. President Donald Trump immediately announces that the federal government will claw back $3 billion that it has spent on the project so far, ultimately halting nearly $1 billion in federal money that had been allocated.
- 2021: Newly-elected President Joe Biden gives California the $1 billion that Trump had denied to the state for high-speed rail construction, with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg championing the project.
- 2023: The Biden administration awards another $6 billion to high-speed rail in California — including a more promising, private sector-driven project to connect L.A. and Las Vegas with a different bullet train.
- 2024: The CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority says the project will need another $100 billion, above nearly $30 billion already received, for a total of $128 billion. The date of completion extends to 2024.
- 2025: Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announces an audit of the California high-speed rail project, and later releases a report concluding that there is “no viable way forward” for the original bullet train.
Duffy said in a statement: “After 16 years and roughly $15 billion spent, not one high speed track has been laid.” He said that the department would also be reviewing other federal grants related to the project.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
“The $135 billion projected total cost of the project could buy every San Francisco and LA resident nearly 200 roundtrip flights between the cities,” the statement by the U.S. Department of Transportation concluded.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.