Construction continues Wednesday, March 30, 2022 on pillars for High Speed Rail in Hanford just north of Highway 198.
Sacramento, California – The California High-Speed Rail Authority is pushing back against a scathing new report from the Federal Railroad Administration, which threatens to strip the country’s largest high-speed rail project of nearly $4 billion in federal funding. In a sharply worded response, state officials accused the federal government of misrepresenting the progress and scope of the decades-long infrastructure effort.
The friction comes at a pivotal moment for the Central Valley portion of the rail line, which is entering the tracklaying phase after years of construction delays and cost overruns. While the line is still far from the original vision of a bullet train connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles in under three hours, officials in Sacramento say the state has delivered concrete progress—literally. As of this month, 53 major structures and nearly 70 miles of guideway have been completed between Merced and Bakersfield, including the 4,741-foot San Joaquin River Viaduct and the expansive Hanford Viaduct in Kings County.
Despite this momentum, a June 5 compliance review from the Department of Transportation painted a far bleaker picture. The report cited a projected $7 billion funding shortfall and said California lacked a “credible strategy” to close the gap. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy went further, framing the project as a cautionary tale of mismanagement. “CHSRA has no viable path to complete this project on time or on budget,” he said. “Our country deserves high-speed rail that makes us proud—not boondoggle trains to nowhere.”
The language echoed long-standing criticism from former President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly attacked the rail effort as a “green disaster” and a “waste.” In May, he threatened to rescind federal funding entirely, saying, “This government is not going to pay” for what he called “this stupid project that should have never been built.”
California rail officials, however, reject the premise that the project is stalled. In a letter sent to the federal government on Wednesday, Authority CEO Ian Choudri described the FRA’s report as “inaccurate” and “outright misleading.” He argued that the state has made meaningful headway in reshaping the region’s transportation infrastructure and criticized federal officials for downplaying what has already been achieved.
The broader debate speaks to more than just a single train line. It’s a referendum on the role of long-term public infrastructure in an era of political short attention spans, mounting climate concerns, and deepening regional inequality. For now, the steel and concrete of California’s Central Valley offer a tangible answer to an increasingly abstract question: what does it mean to build for the future?
