en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Board of Directors of the California High-Speed Rail Authority convened a meeting this Wednesday to review the project's estimated total cost of $126.2 billion. Board members clashed during the meeting over accountability for the $15.7 billion already spent on the project to date. As of June 2025, no track has been laid at the construction site, and neither board members nor Authority staff responded to questions about whether track laying would commence this year.
In November 2008, California voters approved a bond measure authorizing the issuance of $9.95 billion in bonds to fund the high-speed rail project, a detail documented in the official voter information guide distributed to residents that year. The $15.7 billion already expended on the project has significantly exceeded the initial bond authorization amount.
Board member Emily Cohen stated during the meeting: "The High-Speed Rail Authority is not responsible for building every single part of this project." She noted that the project relies on a funding plan that provides $1 billion annually through 2045, a plan requiring approval from the California State Legislature. Cohen emphasized that elected officials bear the responsibility to provide funding to ensure the project's completion. Aside from Democratic Senator Anna Caballero from the Merced district, who attended part of the meeting as an ex-officio board member but made no comments, no other legislators were present at the day's meeting.
The draft 2026 Business Plan was released in February, and the discussion originally scheduled for Wednesday's meeting was postponed to the next board meeting in May. The draft indicates the project is expected to be completed in 2039 and operational in 2040, a 20-year delay from the original timeline presented to voters in 2008. The cost for the Merced to Bakersfield segment was estimated at $34.76 billion in the February draft, while the Authority lowered the completion cost estimate for this segment to $31.56 billion in a separate report released in March.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has criticized the California high-speed rail project and played a central role in withdrawing $4 billion in federal funds originally scheduled to be disbursed through the Federal Railroad Administration in 2025. The California Department of Justice subsequently sued the federal government, and that lawsuit has been dismissed. California Governor Gavin Newsom stated in February, following the completion of the Railhead Facility in southern Kern County, that California will continue to advance high-speed rail construction.
Since its approval by voters in 2008, the California high-speed rail project was originally planned for completion by 2020 with a total investment of $33 billion. The total cost has now escalated to $126.2 billion, and the project's operational date has been pushed back to 2040.
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