Posted on Wednesday, June 4, 2025
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by Kamden Mulder
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Photo Credit | California High-Speed Rail Authority
California’s High Speed Rail fiasco is once again drawing criticism as it blows past budget and timeline expectations. At the same time, the success of a recent rail project in Florida shows that most of the blame falls at the feet of California’s liberal leadership.
According to a news report out late last month from local outlet KCRA, the High Speed Rail project’s budget gap has grown over just the last two months to $10.2 billion. Earlier this year, California lawmakers also said that they need another $7 billion by next summer for the project to move forward.
“The entire San Francisco to Los Angeles project was initially supposed to be completed by 2020 and cost $33 billion. Today, the Merced-to-Bakersfield segment alone would cost more than the original total,” the U.S. Department of Transportation recently said in a press release. “The latest estimate for San Francisco to Los Angeles is $106 billion — more than three times the original cost estimate.”
As a result, DOT has initiated a review of $4 billion in taxpayer funds allocated to the project during former President Joe Biden’s tenure, citing both the budget and timeline failures.
“For too long, taxpayers have subsidized the massively over-budget and delayed California High-Speed Rail project,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. “President Trump is right that this project is in dire need of an investigation. That is why I am directing my staff to review and determine whether the CHSRA has followed through on the commitments it made to receive billions of dollars in federal funding. If not, I will have to consider whether that money could be given to deserving infrastructure projects elsewhere in the United States.”
The original project was approved by voters in 2008 under a California finance bond and was reportedly set to cost $33 billion. Today, the budget far exceeds what voters were promised, with a price tag ranging from $88 billion to $128 billion, and an obvious schedule delay from the original bond vote. Officials say only partial completion can be expected by the early 2030s.
Following the repeated failures and cost overruns, Congress is now looking to get involved as well. “I’ve introduced legislation to cut off all future federal funding for California High Speed Rail,” Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) announced on the House floor in May. “I was with Secretary Duffy when he announced an investigation into where the recent federal funding has actually gone, and I have called upon FBI Director Kash Patel to launch an investigation into what happened to the $17 billion that has already been spent.”
“At this point, the cost of the project is estimated to be about $100 billion more than it was initially sold to the public,” Kiley added. “There have been five more CEOs than there have been riders — five CEOs, zero riders.”
Trump has been equally critical of the project, citing its failure as a main reason why California Governor Gavin Newsom would be unsuccessful in a potential 2028 presidential bid.
“I would love him to run for president,” Trump said. “I’d love to see that, but I don’t think he’s going to be running because that one project alone — well, that, and the fires and a lot of other things — pretty much put him out of the race.”
Despite the president’s criticism, Newsom’s revised budget for fiscal year 2026 includes proposed aggressive funding for the project — $1 billion annually under the state’s cap-and-trade program, extending through 2045.
“California’s cap-and-trade program generates public dollars from companies that buy credits at state auctions to offset their greenhouse gas emissions. The money generated is then invested in pollution-reducing projects, such as the electrically powered high-speed rail project,” the Fresno Bee reported.
Yet while the California project flounders, states like Florida prove that intercity train transportation can be done successfully — so long as the right leadership is in place.
Brightline, a privately owned railway running between Miami and Orlando, with plans for expansion to stop in Tampa, took approximately five years to complete. More than one million passengers rode the train in the last year, and the railway expects that number to continue to increase.
Brightline has plans to expand out west, with ambitions to be the first high-speed passenger rail system nationwide. The western project will include service from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, traveling approximately 218 miles with an anticipated ridership of nine million people per year. The project is expected to be completed by the 2028 Olympics, hosted in Los Angeles, well before the projected completion date of California’s high-speed railway.
“The slow progress by CHSRA contrasts with the impressive work of Brightline West to build a high-speed rail system,” DOT has said.
California’s High Speed Rail debacle isn’t a failure of technology — it’s a failure of leadership. Meanwhile, states like Florida are proving that rail can be done quickly, affordably, and effectively when politics and vanity projects take a back seat to sound planning and private sector discipline.
As federal officials launch long-overdue investigations and lawmakers call for a funding freeze, one thing is clear: California’s High Speed Rail isn’t a model for the future — it’s a warning.
Kamden Mulder is a senior at Hillsdale College pursuing a degree in American Studies and Journalism. You can follow her on X @kamdenmulder_.
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