US authorities cancel funding for Baltimore-Maryland-Washington high-speed rail
Washington: US Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced that the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) will cancel two grants totaling over $26 million for a planned high-speed rail that would link Baltimore, Maryland and Washington.
“After nearly a decade of poor planning, significant community opposition, tremendous cost overruns, and nothing to show for it, Secretary Duffy is ending federal involvement in the project and its cost to taxpayers,” the Transportation Department said in a statement.
As part of its analysis, the FRA also determined that the so-called Superconducting Magnetic Levitation Project would result in significant, unresolvable impacts to federal agencies and federal property, including national security agencies, Xinhua news agency reported.
“This project lacked everything needed to be a success from planning to execution. This project did not have the means to go the distance, and I can’t in good conscience keep taxpayers on the hook for it,” said Duffy.
The project was proposed to be a high-speed rail project using superconducting magnetic levitation technology linking Baltimore, Maryland and Washington. The estimated capital cost to build this project is nearly $20 billion.
The FRA’s involvement in the project dates back to 2016. The project has since experienced numerous delays and cost overruns, according to the statement.
The Transportation Department previously cut federal support for the California high-speed rail project, blaming Governor Gavin Newsom and the Democrats for enabling waste for years. On July 16, Duffy announced that the FRA had terminated approximately $4 billion in unspent federal funding for California’s high-speed rail “boondoggle.”
Newsom and the California High-Speed Rail Authority have been strongly criticizing the move, calling it politically motivated, and have filed a lawsuit to restore the funding.