A 25-page letter to the California High Speed Rail Authority’s CEO, Brian Kelly, lays out problems with the project including: the authority “consistently and repeatedly failed in its management and delivery of the Project, and in meeting the terms and conditions of the [2010] Agreement, all of which constitute violations of the … Agreement.”
The announcement Thursday from the Federal Railroad Administration makes cements a determination the agency made in February that the project is unlikely to be completed by 2022 — an already extended deadline.
The news comes amid criticism, specifically from an auditor’s report that details missteps and cost overruns that California high speed rail managers inflicted on the project, almost from the beginning.
A 2010 agreement between the U.S. government and the state of California had U.S. taxpayers footing the bill for $928,620,000 for what was a $25 billion project when proposed in 2000, but quickly grew to at least $77 billion earlier this year.
