The Trump administration aims to reallocate $2.4 billion from California’s high-speed rail venture, introducing it as part of a novel $5 billion initiative unveiled on Monday. This initiative is designed to fund rail projects enhancing passenger rail services across the country.
The guidelines for this new program exclude any references to diversity or climate change, which were included during the Biden administration. The program will instead prioritize initiatives focused on areas with elevated birth and marriage rates as well as projects that enhance safety at railroad crossings.
The Trump administration has removed climate change and diversity language from other grant criteria, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy criticized these Biden-era requirements along with California Governor Gavin Newsom’s rail project during the announcement.
“Our new National Railroad Partnership Program will prioritize safety, our utmost priority, without the extreme DEI and environmental grant conditions. Rather than spending funds on Governor Newsom’s high-speed rail folly, these strategic investments will benefit rail passengers, local commuters, and pedestrians,” Duffy remarked.
The largest portion of this funding, which the Federal Railroad Administration revealed, originates from the $4 billion that was stripped from the California project. The remaining funds are drawn from announcements made last year and this year’s budget.
President Donald Trump and Duffy have both been vocal critics of the long-running California project, pointing out its budget excesses and numerous delays that have prevented the planned rail link between San Francisco and Los Angeles from becoming operational.
California officials said they will fight the effort to redistribute money they believe should be going to their project. They had already filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision to pull federal funding from the rail project.
“The FRA’s decision to terminate federal funding for California high-speed rail was unlawful, unwarranted, and is being challenged in federal court. Now, their attempt to redirect a portion of that funding, currently the subject of litigation, is premature,” said Micah Flores, a spokesman for the California High-Speed Rail Authority. “The Authority has been prepared for this possibility and will take imminent legal action to block this misguided effort by the FRA.”
The focus on areas with higher birth and marriage rates reflects Trump’s executive orders that make spending that benefits American families a priority in his administration, according to an FRA spokesman.
The Federal Railroad Administration said railroad crossings are important to address because more than 200 people a year are killed when trains collide with vehicles or pedestrians at crossings. That has long been something the government and railroads have worked to address, but it is costly to build bridges or underpasses that allow cars to safely bypass the tracks.
Even though the money is targeted toward improving passenger rail, some of it will almost certainly go to improvements on the nation’s major freight railroads because Amtrak uses their tracks for most of its long-distance routes across the country.
The administration also said it would give priority to projects that improve the traveling experience for families by adding amenities like nursing mothers’ rooms, expanded waiting areas and children’s play areas in train stations.
Applications for this money are due by Jan. 7.
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Associated Press writer Sophie Austin contributed to this report from Sacramento, California.
