How Donald Trump Could Boost US High-Speed Rail

Newsweek

27-05-2025

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President Donald Trump has the chance to cement his legacy by laying the groundwork for a "17,000-mile high-speed rail network" across the United States, according to former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
Speaking to Newsweek at the U.S. High Speed Rail Association's 2025 annual conference in Washington, D.C., LaHood, who worked in the Obama administration, said he was "heartened by some of the things" Trump has said about high-speed rail, and urged him to "send a signal" by vocally backing one or more proposed high speed rail lines.
He said such a move would unlock "private dollars and state dollars" which would help high speed rail "take off much quicker than it is right now."
Newsweek has contacted the White House press office for comment.
The U.S. High Speed Rail Association (USHSR) is a campaign group, including both industry and labor representatives, that advocates on behalf of the American high speed rail industry.
The State of U.S. High Speed Rail
Currently, the U.S. doesn't have any functioning high speed rail lines, which the International Union of Railways (UIC) defines as operating at a minimum of 250 kilometers per hour (155 miles per hour) on specially built tracks.
This puts the U.S. behind the likes of France, Spain, Japan and China all of which have advanced high speed rail networks, with the latter operating nearly 30,000 miles worth of high-speed rail track, the vast majority of which was built over the past two decades.
Two high speed rail lines are currently under construction in the U.S.—California High Speed Rail, which is intended to link Los Angeles to San Francisco, and Brightline West, a project to connect Las Vegas to southern California.
However, a plethora of other proposals have been made including plans to link Dallas, Houston, and Fort Worth in Texas, Eugene, Oregon, to Vancouver in Cascadia and Boston, New York and Washington D.C. in the Northeast.
President Trump could turbocharge U.S high speed rail by sending "a signal" to attract private funding, according to former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
President Trump could turbocharge U.S high speed rail by sending "a signal" to attract private funding, according to former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
Newsweek Illustration/Canva/Associated Press/Getty
Former Transportation Secretary LaHood's Hopes
There was widespread concern among attendees at the USHSR annual conference that Trump's second term could stymie American high speed rail plans, but LaHood, a Republican who served as Obama's transportation secretary from 2009 to 2013, struck a more optimistic note.
LaHood told Newsweek he had been "heartened by some of the things I've heard President Trump say" about high-speed rail, adding he "seems enthused about [the] Las Vegas to Los Angeles" project. This plan, Brightline West, is being built between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga in southern California, but there is also a plan to link it to the Los Angeles to San Francisco line via a "high desert corridor."
The former transportation secretary said that a clear signal from Trump in support of one or more high speed rail projects would help to unlock private and state funding.
"I think the success of these projects in Europe and Asia is largely due to the national government making investments but then encouraging the private sector," LaHood said. "Once the national government makes a commitment its easier for the private sector then—they know it's going to be a stable project, they know their investment is going to be good."
Former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood speaking at the U.S. High Speed Rail Association's 2025 annual conference in Washington D.C.
Former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood speaking at the U.S. High Speed Rail Association's 2025 annual conference in Washington D.C.
James Bickerton/Newsweek
He added: "I think if President Trump sent a signal to Texas Central or sent a signal to California...the national government has to be positive and has to make a commitment for dollars in order to then attract the kind of private dollars and state dollars that it takes to make these projects happen. If that kind of commitment were made by national government boom, I think high speed rail would take off much quicker than it is right now."
LaHood pointed to the success of Brightline, a privately owned and operated rail line connecting Miami and Orlando that opened in 2023. While it runs at below the high-speed standard, Brightline was the first privately built rail line in the U.S. to begin operations in a century and has seen its passenger number surge since its launch.
"If you look at the Brightline project in Florida between Miami and Orlando, now it's not high-speed rail but it is wildly popular," the former transportation secretary said. "They're putting more and more trains on that track every day because people like the idea that they don't have to get on the I-95.
"If you build it, they will come, if you build it, it will be successful and I think that will be the case with Brightline West, Las Vegas to LA, and I think it will be true San Francisco to LA. I think they will be wildly popular. I really believe at this point if you build it, they will come and the proof of that is Europe and Asia. Their trains are wildly popular."
Trump and High-Speed Rail
Trump's positions on high-speed rail have been mixed over the years. In August 2024, the then Republican presidential candidate praised "unbelievably fast" bullet trains that had "no problems" in other countries.
"We don't have anything like that in this country, not even close, and it doesn't make sense that we don't. Doesn't make sense," Trump said.
Then-U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood testifies before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Capitol Hill February 24, 2010, in Washington, D.C.
Then-U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood testifies before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Capitol Hill February 24, 2010, in Washington, D.C.
Mark Wilson/GETTY
Last month however, Trump's Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy cut $63.9 million in federal funding that was being provided to support the Texas Central proposed high-speed rail line between Dallas and Houston, describing it as "a waste of taxpayer funds." Texas Central insists it was not reliant on the funding and is continuing with its plans.
Trump has also been harshly critical of the California High Speed Rail project designed to link Los Angeles to San Francisco claiming it had the "worst overruns that there have ever been in the history of our country."
During his first term, Trump slashed $1 billion of funding for the project, which was later restored under President Joe Biden. In February, Duffy said he was launching a review into whether the project "followed through on the commitments it made to receive billions of dollars in federal funding" and if not whether the money should be spent elsewhere.
The U.S. High Speed Rail Association paid travel and hotel expenses for Newsweek reporter James Bickerton to attend its 2025 annual conference.