The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has terminated a 2010 Cooperative Agreement formed with the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) and will rescind nearly $929 million in unspent funds from the failed high-speed rail project.
The USDOT’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) determined that the CHSRA had violated the terms of the original agreement.
“Additionally, California has abandoned its original vision of a high-speed passenger rail service connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles, which was essential to its applications,” the FRA said in a statement.
They are also openly looking into options to regain $2.5 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds issued for the project.
“The California high-speed rail project has been inherently flawed from the very beginning – timelines have not been met, ridership projections have been exaggerated, and the budget has ballooned by tens of billions of dollars,” U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said of the news. “Today’s announcement ensures that we move on from the failed boondoggle and focus on actual solutions that help Californians, like desperately-needed water storage and infrastructure projects.”
Instead, McCarthy has proposed a bill to repurpose those funds for surface water storage projects that would reduce nitrate levels in drinking water and explore new sources of water when residential wells run dry.
The California High-Speed Rail was initially projected to connect downtown Los Angeles with San Francisco. That project was expected to complete in 2033, but the project was plagued by delays and rising costs, which eventually led Gov. Gavin Newsom to postpone the project earlier this year. The project was instead scaled down and its original goal eliminated.