The Trump administration said Tuesday that it’s canceling $929 million of federal funding for California’s high-speed rail project and demanding the return of $2.6 billion that’s already been spent.
The administration made its move a week after Newsom suggested that the state was refocusing its $77 billion plan to run 220-mph trains between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Because of cost overruns and delays, he said, the state would concentrate on starting service in the Central Valley between Merced and Bakersfield.
President Trump seized on the governor’s statement in a tweet, calling California’s rail plan a “disaster” and saying he wanted the state to return federal money that has been invested in the project. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Bakersfield Republican and close Trump ally who has long opposed the high-speed rail project, also celebrated its “extinction.”
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In a letter sent Tuesday to the California High-Speed Rail Authority, Ronald Batory, head of the Federal Railroad Administration, noted Newsom’s “significant retreat” from the state’s original plan. He wrote that the reduced project wasn’t what the federal government had committed to help fund.
The letter also cited California’s failure to meet its construction schedule, provide sufficient financial contributions and demonstrate that it was “effectively managing” the project.
Batory wrote that the high-speed rail authority reported spending only $48 million in December, far short of the $142 million officials committed to…
