EDITORIAL: What will Trump White House mean for Brightline project?

Brightline West officials insist they can have their planned Las Vegas to Southern California rail line up and running in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics in the Los Angeles area. But the clock ticks on the ambitious timeline and evidence of progress is scant outside of ceremonial ribbon-cuttings. Now, another potential roadblock looms.

The incoming Trump administration in Washington — potential Cabinet members and the president-elect himself — has signaled an eagerness to zero out federal high-speed rail handouts. Officials in California, home to the biggest rail boondoggle in the nation’s history, are already fretting that the taxpayer spigot could run dry on the foundering Los Angeles to San Francisco project.

“The project was recently targeted on X by (Donald) Trump’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency,” the Los Angeles Times reported, adding that Elon Musk “said earlier this year that billions of dollars have been spent on high-speed rail ‘for practically nothing.’ ”

In addition, the Times noted, Rep. Kevin Kiley, a California Republican who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said he’ll introduce legislation that would cut federal subsidies for the rail line. “High-speed rail, in short, is a staggering waste of taxpayer dollars that fails to meet the transportation needs of either today or tomorrow,” he told the paper. “That federal support is keeping the project on life support.”

That’s no exaggeration. The project has been the beneficiary of $6.8 billion in federal largesse and now seeks $8 billion more. A rail line that was sold to voters as a $33 billion endeavor will now cost $130 billion, and rising. There is still no realistic vision for completion, and ridership estimates — originally exaggerated to gin up taxpayer support — have been adjusted down, meaning additional public contributions will be necessary to cover lower revenues.

During his first term, Mr. Trump clawed back nearly $1 billion that the Obama administration had earmarked for the California rail line. The Biden administration reinstated that funding and vowed even more. But don’t expect Mr. Trump and a Republican Congress to rubber-stamp that promise.

Whether the funding pullback has any ramifications for the Vegas-to-Southern California project — which has been promised in one form or another for nearly 40 years — remains to be seen. But despite original assurances that the line could be fully completed with private funding, the Brightline project moves forward only because of $5.5 billion in bonding authority granted by the U.S. Department of Transportation, making it potentially vulnerable under Mr. Trump.

It also speaks volumes that Brightline has yet to attract significant private investor support. The coming year will likely determine the rail line’s fate.