WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration has terminated some $4 billion in federal funding awarded to but not spent by California’s high speed rail program, following through on a longstanding goal of the Trump administration. California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the move “illegal” and vowed to fight the decision.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a Department of Transportation press release this evening (July 16, 2025) that the “mismanagement and incompetence” of the California High Speed Rail Authority led to the decision. The move follows an FRA compliance review ordered in February and delivered in June; that report said the project had “no viable path” to being completed within budget or on time, and said the CHSRA was in non-compliance with the terms of those grants in nine key areas [see “Report says California high speed project …,” Trains News Wire, June 4, 2025].
CSHRA CEO Ian Choudri rejected most of those findings in a 14-page letter on June 11 [see “California HSR Authority letter …,” News Wire, June 13, 2025], and in a subsequent response decried the federal review as reflecting “hostility to public investments in high speed rail, and to California’s leadership.” But the DOT press release says, “Neither response addressed FRA’s significant concerns.”
The formal 22-page notice revoking the FRA funding, from FRA Acting Administrator Drew Feeley, says “the statutes under which the [Fiscal Year 2010] Agreement is authorized or funding would not be adequately served by the continuation of the Federal contribution. As such, FRA is terminating the Cooperative Agreements, pursuant to their terms and applicable regulations.”
Reuters reports that President Donald Trump, in a post on his social media site, said “not a SINGLE penny in Federal Dollars” will go toward the high-speed “SCAM ever again.”
Newsom, a target of comments from both Duffy and Trump that accompanied the decision, said in a statement that the decision would “hand China the future and abandon the Central Valley. … We’re now in the track-laying phase and building America’s only high-speed rail. California is putting all options on the table to fight this illegal action.” Said Choudri, “Canceling these grants without cause isn’t just wrong — it’s illegal, These are legally binding agreements, and the Authority has met every obligation, as confirmed by repeated federal reviews, as recently as February 2025.”
— Updated July 17 at 7:10 a.m. with response from California officials.
