Trump to give California rail funds to others

$2.4 billion would go to train projects across U.S. focused on safety, passengers, families.

- BY JOSH FUNK

CONSTRUCTION of California's high-speed rail project in Hanford last year.

(ROBERT GAUTHIER Los Angeles Times)

The Trump administration wants to redistribute $2.4 billion it pulled from California’s high-speed rail project as part of a $5-billion program announced Monday to fund projects to boost passenger rail traffic nationwide.

The new program’s rules for states and others wanting to participate remove any mention of diversity or climate change dating to the Biden administration. The program will also put a priority on projects in areas with higher rates of birth and marriage and projects that improve safety at railroad crossings.

The Trump administration has removed climate change and so-called DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) language from other grant requirements, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy took a jab at that Biden-era language and California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s rail project in his announcement.