FRESNO; CA (KMJ) – The Trump administration announces Tuesday its terminating a $929 million federal grant for California’s high-speed rail project.
The notice was sent to the California High-Speed Rail Authority on Tuesday, that the termination is effective March 5.
The U.S. Department of Transportation states they are “actively exploring every legal option” to get back the $2.5 billion in federal grant funds already given to the state.
The notice comes after Governor Gavin Newsom announced Feb. 12 in his State of the State address that the rail line from the Bay area to Los Angeles was being scaled back to a line from Merced to Bakersfield, instead.
“The project, as currently planned, would cost too much and take too long, said Gov. Newsom. “There’s been too little oversight and not enough transparency.”
The governor had desired to bring more accountability into the mix.
Newsom said “Abandoning high speed rail entirely means we will have wasted billions of dollars with nothing but broken promises and lawsuits to show for it. I have no interest in sending back $3.5 billion dollars of federal funding that was allocated to this project to President Donald Trump.”
President Trump tweeted following the Governor’s address that the American people “wanted their money back.”
