The Trump administration on Thursday canceled a promise of $929 million in funding for California's high-speed rail project, further throwing into question the future of the ambitious plan to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco by bullet train.
Trump Administration Pulls $929 Million Grant From California High-Speed Rail
High-Speed Rail Central Valley Regional Director Diana Gomez at the authority's largest construction site in the Central Valley in 2019. (Alex Hall/KQED)
California's High-Speed Rail Saga
The administration also repeated an earlier promise to try to force California to return $2.5 billion in federal money that has already been spent on the project.
The move by the Federal Railroad Administration came several months after President Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom sniped at each other over the project.
Trump made the rail line an issue when he seized on Newsom's remarks in February that the project as planned would cost too much and take too long.
Newsom has shifted the project's immediate focus to a 171-mile line in the San Joaquin Valley, but he said he's still committed to building the full line.
Still, federal officials said California has repeatedly failed to make "reasonable progress" and abandoned the original vision.
Newsom declared the action "illegal and a direct assault on California" and said the state would go to court to keep the money.
"This is California's money, appropriated by Congress, and we will vigorously defend it in court," the governor said in an emailed statement.
Voters initially approved about $10 billion in bond funds for the project in 2008, with state officials saying the project could be built for about $33 billion and start running by 2020. It has faced repeated cost increases and delays since then. It's now projected to cost nearly $80 billion and be finished by 2033.
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