California lost little time to respond to the reduction of $ 4 billion federal government in aid for the 171 -kilometer project of the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA), calling for the Trump Administration in the United States District Court by the eastern California district.
On July 16, the Federal Railway Administration (FRA) terminated two subsidies: a $ 928 million grant awarded in 2010, and a $ 3.1 million grant awarded in 2024, with the transport secretary, Sean Duffy, who called the $ 35 million project a “boondoggle”. Governor Gavin Newsom responded on July 17, announcing that the Chsra would demand the Government, calling the completion of politically motivated federal subsidies.
This demand came later that day in the form of 35 -page complaint presented by the Attorney General Rob Bonta by challenging the legal basis for the end of the financing of the project grant. The demand seeks “declarative and declarative relief”, claiming that President Donald Trump “has long expressed personal animus towards the California High Speed Railway Program” and that the termination was politically motivated.
The lawsuit calls on the court to take off and set aside the actions of the end of FRA and prevents the funds in question from being intended for other projects.
The FRA first alerted to the state, which was planning to draw the subsidies in June, based on the decision of the findings of a 300 -page report from the agency explaining a number of problems with the project. The Chrsa sent an initial response to the allegations on June 11 and a formal response to the report’s conclusions on July 7.
In response to FRA, Chsra CEO Ian Choudri [project] And revenue operations begin by 2033. “
The FRA’s final decision did not change, and the federal government called the project a “waste for years” with “more than a decade of failures” that has caused what was originally invoiced as a $ 33 million mile project to become a project of $ 171 thousand $ 35 billion now undervalued.
The state countered the letters that the project is well and is expected to begin passenger revenue services at 119 miles of court in the central valley by 2033.
The demand of the CHRSA challenges the legal basis for the completion of the financing of the subsidy of the project, claiming that it was made for political reasons. “Trump completion of federal grants for high -speed rail policy in California,” Newsom said in a statement. “It is another political acrobatics to punish California. In fact, this is only a heartless attack in the central valley that will put real work and livelihoods.”
In the demand, the Chsra mimicked a lot of what he wrote in his July 7 response letter, adding that the “sudden decision to terminate” the agreements was “arbitrary and whimsical, an abuse of discretion and contrary to the law and threatening to cause significant economic damage to the central valley, the state and the nation.”
Duffy disagrees. “Federal dollars are not a blank control; they have a promise to deliver results,” he said in a statement to demand. “After more than a decade of failures, Mismanagement and Incompetence of Chsra has shown that he cannot build his train to anywhere or with a budget.”
