{"id":402023,"date":"2026-07-17T08:34:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/402023\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T08:34:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:34:39","slug":"trump-administration-backs-high-speed-rail-but-not-ca-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/402023\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration backs high-speed rail but not CA project"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the California High-Speed Rail Authority<\/a> seeks new federal money for Central Valley construction, the Trump administration says it will instead help build \u201creal\u201d rail \u2014 including other high-speed rail projects.<\/p>\n

In a statement to The Fresno Bee, a U.S. Department of Transportation spokesperson said the Trump administration supports high-speed rail and is looking for opportunities to help build it around the country. The spokesperson also continued the administration\u2019s criticism of California\u2019s bullet train program, which recently applied for a $396 million federal grant<\/a> to help build between Madera County and Merced.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat this administration won\u2019t stand for is boondoggle projects like (Gov. Gavin) Newsom\u2019s Train to Nowhere that wasted billions in taxpayer dollars yet delivered nothing to the American people,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

In his own statement to The Bee, U.S. Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, said the Trump administration is hindering the country\u2019s high-speed rail progress by withdrawing federal support from the California project \u2014 which has been paid for mostly with state revenues thus far<\/a>. He also called the description of the project as a \u201ctrain to nowhere\u201d as an insult to the Central Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world, and our communities deserve the same modern transportation infrastructure as every other part of the country,\u201d Costa said.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump has long criticized the project\u2019s Central Valley focus and its history of delays and cost increases. Last year, Trump-appointed Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy declared the project in default on two federal grant agreements and clawed back $4 billion.<\/a> That money was earmarked for various Central Valley projects, including the downtown Fresno station, the Merced and Bakersfield extensions, and the acquisition of six train sets.<\/p>\n

The California rail authority still has $242 million in federal money. The federal spokesperson did not say whether the Trump administration intends to try to rescind any of those dollars.<\/p>\n

Trump admin. says money taken from CA rail will support \u2018real projects\u2019<\/p>\n

The federal spokesperson said the Trump administration is \u201cworking to usher in a Golden Age of Transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat vision includes high-speed rail and we\u2019re exploring opportunities to efficiently build that infrastructure in America,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson also pointed to Duffy\u2019s announcement last year<\/a> that the federal government would be reinvesting $2.4 billion of the money rescinded from California high-speed rail into the National Railroad Partnership Program. The money is slated for projects that improve safety on intercity passenger rail systems, such as grade crossing improvements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to President Trump and Secretary Duffy, these dollars will instead support real projects that improve the lives of rail passengers, local drivers, and pedestrians,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear whether any of that money has been awarded yet.<\/p>\n

Fresno congressman, HSRA blast Donald Trump\u2019s infrastructure investments<\/p>\n

Costa said he remembers Trump often made large infrastructure deal promises<\/a> during his first term that never came to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were going to have infrastructure week, then infrastructure month, and then it became a joke,\u201d Costa said. \u201cThe Administration\u2019s comments, given their history, offer no substance and instead focus on their politics of retribution \u2014 in this case, California.\u201d<\/p>\n

Costa added that high-speed rail has been successful in countries where the national governments have helped finance construction. He added that the Trump administration should look at the history of those rail systems if it \u201ctruly wants to build the next generation of transportation and not simply offer empty political rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its own statement to The Bee, the California rail authority echoed Costa\u2019s comments. The agency touted its construction progress in the Central Valley, where it says nearly 90 miles of guideway are complete and track laying will finally begin this year.<\/p>\n

The agency is also pushing changes to state law<\/a> that will allow it to spend more money on work outside the Central Valley and toward the Bay Area and Los Angeles County.<\/p>\n

The agency says it is making progress \u201cdespite the noise coming out of Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current federal administration has continually failed to make real investment in infrastructure, instead playing political games and stifling progress,\u201d the agency said. \u201cMeanwhile, California is actively building the nation\u2019s largest public infrastructure project and one of the most significant investments in clean, modern transportation in American history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Erik Galicia<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

Erik is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, where he helped launch an effort to better meet the news needs of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Before that, he served as editor-in-chief of his community college student newspaper, Riverside City College Viewpoints, where he covered the impacts of the Salton Sea\u2019s decline on its adjacent farm worker communities in the Southern California desert.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the California High-Speed Rail Authority seeks new federal money for Central Valley construction, the Trump administration says…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-402023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}