By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration said on Thursday it is opening a review into whether to rescind about $4 billion awarded to California’s High-Speed Rail project.
Voters approved $10 billion for the project in 2008 but the costs have risen sharply and President Donald Trump has sharply criticized the effort. The Transportation Department under former President Joe Biden awarded the project more than $3 billion.
The full project was initially estimated to cost around $40 billion but has now jumped to $89 billion to $128 billion.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority did not immediately issue a comment.
The Federal Railroad Administration said it had initiated the review at the direction of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy over the funds to build the segment in the California Central Valley between Merced and Bakersfield.
The entire San Francisco-to-Los Angeles project was initially supposed to be completed by 2020 for $33 billion, USDOT said, but the Merced-to-Bakersfield segment alone will cost more than the original total, USDOT said.
“For too long, taxpayers have subsidized the massively over-budget and delayed California High-Speed Rail project,” Duffy said. “If not, I will have to consider whether that money could be given to deserving infrastructure projects elsewhere in the United States.”
USDOT cited a report that the Merced-to-Bakersfield segment alone has a funding gap of at least $6.5 billion.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Richard Chang)
