The U.S. Department of Transportation is looking to redirect billions in federal funds away from California's high-speed rail project, for a new Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) program designed to address safety across U.S. intercity passenger rail networks.

According to a September 22 release, the $5 billion program will include roughly $2.4 billion in federal funds that were originally slated for California’s high-speed rail project. In a statement to the Associated Press, California High-Speed Rail Authority spokesperson Micah Flores called the decision to terminate its federal funds "unlawful and unwarranted," and vowed to take "imminent legal action" to block the USDOT's efforts to redirect the money.

Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, had in July already threatened to take back $4 billion in unspent federal funding from the project, characterized by critics as the "train to nowhere." The high-speed rail efforts began in 2009 with the goal of building a train that could travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco in less than three hours. Newsom walked back the scope of the project in 2019, setting out to build just a 170-mile stretch between Merced and Bakersfield. But a recent report found that not a single mile of track had been laid since ground was broken 10 years earlier.

Should it move forward as planned, the National Railroad Partnership Program will focus on grade crossing improvements, which account for more than 2,000 incidents and 200 deaths each year. Acting FRA Administrator Drew Feeley asserted that the funds will “significantly enhance and strengthen grade crossing safety, along with other eligible uses related to passenger rail capacity and reliability.”

Eligible applicants include states, interstate compacts, public agencies, Amtrak, federally recognized tribes, and political subdivisions of states. The program also removed all language related to any mention of diversity or climate change that was present during the Biden administration, and will prioritize projects in areas with higher rates of birth and marriage, according to the AP.