In a
, the Federal Railroad Administration informed the California High Speed Rail Authority that it intends to cancel $929 million in federal grants yet to be paid for building a high-speed rail link between Los Angeles region and the San Francisco bay area.

[Above photo by Jack Snell.]

Additionally, the U.S. Department of Transportation said in a statement that it is “actively exploring every legal option” to get California to repay $2.5 billion in federal funds FRA previously granted for, in its words, this “now-defunct project.”

“FRA has determined that CHSRA has materially failed to comply with the terms of the agreement and has failed to make reasonable progress on the project … significantly endangering substantial performance,” the agency said in its letter.

“Reinforcing FRA’s concerns … is the significant change in the state of California’s plans for its high-speed rail system,” the agency added. “During his State-of-the-State address Governor [Gavin] Newsom presented a new proposal that represents a significant retreat from the state’s initial vision and commitment and frustrates the purpose for which Federal funding was awarded.”

Yet Gov. Newsom – who characterized the FRA’s letter in a tweet as “retribution” for California’s opposition to President Trump’s emergency declaration for the purpose of building a wall along the country’s southern border with Mexico – said, “we’re building high-speed rail, connecting the Central Valley and beyond. This is CA’s [California’s] money, allocated by Congress for this project. We’re not giving it back.”

The federal portion of California’s high-speed rail project came from two sources nine year ago. First came $8 billion for intercity passenger rail projects out of the

2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

, followed by $2.5 billion worth of high speed/intercity passenger rail grants tucked within the

fiscal year 2010 Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development appropriations

.

It is that second round of funding the Trump administration is trying to “claw back” from California after Gov. Newsom (D) stated in his Feb. 12 speech that “the [high speed rail] project, as currently planned, would cost too much and take too long. There’s been too little oversight and not enough transparency. Right now, there simply isn’t a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to L.A. I wish there were.”

Ballooning costs are the main reason for the pullback, as the initial $33 billion estimate for building a state-wide high-speed rail network nine years ago is now $77 billion, according to CHSRA’s latest
.

Yet Gov. Newsom also stressed in his speech that California will “continue our regional projects north and south” for high-speed rail and “finish Phase 1 environmental work” while pushing for more federal funding and private dollars.