Transportation Secretary asks for compliance review of California's High Speed Rail project
LOS ANGELES -- U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has asked for a compliance review of California's controversial High Speed Rail project.
"We're going to look at whether the California High Speed Rail Authority has actually complied with the agreements that they've signed with the federal government," he said. "We can't just say we're going to give money and then not hold states accountable to how they spend that money."
Voters first approved $10 billion in bond money in 2008 for a project designed to shuttle riders between San Francisco and Los Angeles in less than three hours. It was slated to cost $33 billion and be finished by 2020. But the project has been beset by funding challenges, cost overruns and delays.
Now, state officials are focused on a 171-mile stretch connecting the Central Valley cities of Bakersfield and Merced, which is set to be operating by 2033. The entire San Francisco to Los Angeles line will now cost an estimated $106 billion to finish.
Duffy said he believes, "there's a demand" from American taxpayers that "money is spent well."
"The problem is California is still short $6.5 billion," he said. "California doesn't have the money to complete the project, even with the federal promises that were made by the last administration, so the question becomes what do we do? Well, I can't make decisions for the great state of California, but we do have to be responsible for the tax dollars that are spent from the federal government."
Meanwhile, California Sen. Adam Schiff spoke with Duffy about the announcement.
"He pledged to keep an open mind in this. I hope that he will as they review it," Schiff told ABC7. "Of course, we've already had one Inspector General investigation, or maybe several, in California, and there have been, early on, strong cost overruns, which are concerning."
President Donald Trump canceled nearly $1 billion in federal funding for the high-speed rail project in 2019, during his first term. The Biden administration later restored the funding and, in December 2023, allocated $3.3 billion more.
Losing that money would be a major blow to the project. The rail authority's most recent business plan counts on receiving up to $8 billion in federal money to help close a funding gap.
Ian Choudri, CEO of the California's High-Speed Rail Authority, which oversees planning and funding for the project, said he welcomes the investigation.
"With multiple independent federal and state audits completed, every dollar is accounted for, and we stand by the progress and impact of this project," Choudri said.
He said the project has created nearly 15,000 jobs and that more than 50 major structures have been completed so far.
"Yeah, they said they're going to start an investigation, but come on, this is a sham investigation," said Eli Lipmen with Move LA, an organization that advocates for a more modern and efficient transit system. "Of course, all the speakers said this has been a boondoggle from the beginning. That's not what Californians said, 54% of Californians in a recent poll just yesterday said that they support high speed rail."
NOTE: A previous version of this report incorrectly reported that the high-speed rail project was expected to be completed by the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The California High Speed Rail Authority said it's "focused on getting the Merced to Bakersfield system operational between 2030 and 2033 and connecting the state's major population centers via Gilroy in the north and Palmdale in the south within the next 20 years as funding becomes available"
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
