Federal regulators were not aggressive enough in reacting to the California bullet train’s problems since 2009 while overseeing a $2.5-billion grant to the troubled project, a federal audit released Friday found. As a result, “the California High-Speed Rail Authority is at increased risk of not achieving the purpose of the agreements,” it said. The Trump administration has threatened to claw back the grant money, asserting that the project has violated the terms of the grant. AdvertisementThe California project received more than a third of federal spending for high-speed rail projects across the country and as it went over budget and fell behind schedule the Federal Railroad Administration missed opportunities to document and react to the growing problems, the audit found. The difference apparently results from federal regulators refusing to accept some of the state’s documentation of the matching spending.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 25, 2020 00:22 UTC