by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 2:45 PM ET, Wed February 5, 2025
PHOTO: Donald Trump. (photo via Flickr/Ninian Reid)
On Tuesday, February 4, President Donald Trump promised to investigate California’s high-speed rail project, calling it “billions and billions, hundreds of billions of dollars over budget.”
The Fresno Bee reported that the project has faced significant delays since its approval in 2008. The fully-electric rail system would connect San Francisco to Los Angeles by a route traveling up to 220 mph through the San Joaquin Valley, and was at the time estimated to cost $9.9 billion.
This isn’t the first time Trump took aim at the project: in 2019, he canceled a federal grant of almost $1 billion that was awarded to the project during the Obama administration. Both he and Elon Musk have been critical of the California High-Speed Rail Authority and its project.
The rail project also faced some hefty challenges in the 17 years since its approval, including change orders from contractors, lawsuits and buying the right-of-way.
The project’s end-date has also been delayed, with the portion running between Merced and Bakersfield expected to begin taking passengers sometime between 2030 and 2033. Still, 171 miles are under design and construction, and 60 miles of guideway and 50 other miles are already completed.
Despite Trump’s claims of hundreds of billions being wasted, the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s economic report from 2024 reported only $13 billion having been spent thus far. The Federal Railroad Administration under Obama and Biden provided less than $7 billion toward the project.
The project itself created 109,000 job-years of employment, generated $8.3 billion in labor income for workers and generated $21.8 in economic output.
“The train that’s being built between Los Angeles and San Francisco is the worst managed project I think I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen some of the worst,” Trump told reporters.
While it seems official reports found no hundreds of billions wasted, there are estimates that its cost could grow dramatically over the course of its completion.
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