Cali abandons lawsuit challenging Trump decision to cancel over $4B in high-speed rail funds
California has decided to end the lawsuit it filed last year that challenged President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw more than $4 billion in federal grants for the state’s high‑speed rail project. The state’s High‑Speed Rail Authority announced the move late Friday, saying the federal cut reflected a broader assessment that “the federal government is not a reliable, constructive, or trustworthy partner in advancing high‑speed rail in California.”
The authority has long been working on a rail line that would link Los Angeles and San Francisco in roughly three hours. Since the project’s launch over fifteen years ago, it has suffered from missed deadlines, cost overruns, and doubts about ridership numbers. A 315‑page report released by the Federal Railroad Administration in June highlighted budget shortfalls and a series of schedule failures. The U.S. Department of Transportation said those findings showed the agency would be “unable to deliver on their high‑speed rail promises on time or on budget.” The DOT added, “American tax dollars will be spared from being wasted on this train to nowhere and will instead support real projects that improve the lives of rail passengers, local drivers, and pedestrians.”
Only 18 percent of the project’s expenditures have come from federal money, and the state said it can continue construction without that funding. A federal judge earlier this month refused to dismiss the lawsuit pending the federal review. Despite the setbacks, the California agency is looking to bring private investors and developers on board by the summer of 2026 and is claiming that the loss of federal dollars will not derail progress.
The project’s cost has ballooned from an original $33 billion estimate intended to be finished by 2020 to a projected range of $89 billion to $128 billion, with service now expected to begin in 2033. Since 2008, when voters approved the first bond issue, the rail line has built more than 50 major structures—including bridges, overpasses, undercrossings and viaducts—and has completed nearly 80 miles (130 km) of guideway.
In August, the Department of Transportation canceled another $175 million earmarked for four high‑speed rail projects, after the earlier $4 billion grant cancellation. Meanwhile, Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has criticized the federal cut. “Petty, political retribution, motivated by President Trump’s personal animus toward California and the high‑speed rail project, not the facts on the ground,” the governor said in a July statement.
During his first term, Trump revoked $929 million in federal grants. The state challenged that move, and a settlement in 2021 under President Joe Biden restored the full amount. Legislation signed in September this year guarantees the program $1 billion annually through 2045, providing a new steady source of funding as California works to bring its high‑speed rail vision to fruition.
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