California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a major milestone for the state’s high-speed rail project — the state will begin laying actual rail track after just 18 years on the total “boondoggle” project.
“With the completion of the Southern Railhead Facility, we’ve taken another critical step in the track-laying stage,” Newsom said. “California is building the nation’s first high-speed rail system, and we’re proving it can be done.”
The announcement drew widespread criticism after Newsom admitted that it has cost the California High-Speed Rail Authority nearly $15 billion to lay a single railroad track.
Now, the real rail spending begins – California taxpayers are expected to shell out another $110 billion on the project.
“The Federal Railroad Administration’s exhaustive compliance review concluded that California lacks the leadership to bring this project to fruition on time or on budget,” the DOT spokesperson said. “The $135 billion projected total cost of the project could buy every San Francisco and LA resident nearly 200 roundtrip flights between the cities. Federal dollars are not a blank check—they come with a promise to deliver results, which California has failed to do.”
The New York Post went ahead and found all the progress that had been made for $15 billion in taxpayer spending.
Take a look –
The project was originally supposed to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles by 2020.
But now, the goal is to complete just a 119-mile segment between Merced and Bakersfield in the Central Valley by 2030 to 2033. It’s just 35 percent of the originally promised project, arriving 10 years later than initially planned, and at least $44 billion over the promised budget.
Even The Daily Show took aim at Newsom on Wednesday in a satirical segment that framed him as a possible 2028 presidential contender while mocking his record on homelessness and high-speed rail.
“And so we ask that you consider Gavin Newsom — a screen-ready, Christian Bale-type — ready to tackle chronic problems, like homelessness and high-speed rail. Plus, he dances while he talks, for some reason,” the narrator said.
“Gavin Newsom — he’s more than a politician; he’s a leading man,” the narrator concluded.
Take a look —
Gavin Newsom, the screen-ready Christian Bale type, is ready to tackle issues like homelessness and high-speed rail, even if at a glacial pace pic.twitter.com/XXJLzR7ImX
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) February 5, 2026
“We loved the segment — it’s hilarious — even if the punchline needs a small update: Unsheltered homelessness is down 9% in California, and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s high-speed rail is finally in the track-laying phase under AMERICA’S MOST HANDSOME GOVERNOR!” the governor’s office replied.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy terminated $4 billion in unspent federal funding for the high-speed rail project in July 2025, calling it a boondoggle.
“This is California’s fault. Governor Newsom and the complicit Democrats have enabled this waste for years,” Duffy said. “Federal dollars are not a blank check — they come with a promise to deliver results. After over a decade of failures, CHSRA’s mismanagement and incompetence has proven it cannot build its train to nowhere on time or on budget. It’s time for this boondoggle to die.”
In an op-ed published after pulling federal funding, Duffy wrote that Newsom has no clue what functional government looks like.
“California just spent 16 years and $15 billion to develop a high-speed rail network that has yet to lay a single track and he’s still defending the project,” Duffy wrote. “In fact, he’s suing to protect this multi-billion-dollar train to nowhere.”
President Donald Trump has called for an audit of California’s high-speed rail project spending.