While President Donald Trump nixed funding for California’s “train to nowhere,” taxpayers remain on the hook for other projects that are billions of dollars over budget and more than a decade behind schedule, according to a new Senate report.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, issued “Off the Rails: The Billion Dollar Boondoggles Taking Taxpayers for a Ride,” a report that details projects such as Minnesota’s costliest project in history and a project that is more than half of Hawaii’s entire state budget.
“From poor planning and mismanagement to red tape, there are a laundry list of reasons why these projects are delayed,” Ernst told The Daily Signal. “Somehow, the solution is always more tax dollars, but enough is enough. As I continue to work with the Trump administration to restore accountability to Washington, there is no better place to focus than on these projects that have cost run-ups totaling more than $160 billion.”
As part of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act during the Biden administration, Ernst got an amendment passed that requires the Department of Transportation to issue a public report each year disclosing any taxpayer-funded project that is more than $1 billion over budget or is five years or more behind schedule. (Ernst voted against the bigger bill).
The Transportation Department missed its first deadline of November 2022 for producing the public report and subsequent deadlines since, but on June 3, Trump administration Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy released a list of overbudget, over-deadline projects. While a one-page list was helpful, it left out significant details about the waste, Ernst noted in her report.
The Trump administration is going to take back $4 billion that was going to California’s High-Speed Rail project, which Trump calls the “train to nowhere.” Ernst has called for canceling the project since 2019.
The original estimated cost for the first phase of the rail project was $5 billion, but the current cost estimate is $18 billion, according to Ernst’s report and the Transportation Department.
Phase One of the project was set to be completed by 2018. Now, the estimated completion date is 2029 to 2030, according to the report.
“A decade has passed since the railroad’s groundbreaking,” the Ernst report says. “While construction is costing about $1.8 million a day, no tracks have even been laid. By comparison, it took just six years to complete the Transcontinental Railroad.”
And a project in Hawaii ballooned by $4.8 billion over its original cost estimate to $9.9 billion. The Honolulu Rail Transit project was also delayed by at least 11 years, as its original planned completion was 2020 and is now estimated to be 2031, according to the report.
“Every dollar sunk into one of these billion-dollar boondoggles is a missed opportunity to support other initiatives that could better serve taxpayers at a fraction of the cost,” the Ernst report says. “The $10 billion needed to complete the Hawaii rail project, for example, is equivalent to nearly half of the state’s entire budget for a full year.”
Construction of a Washington, D.C., subway “purple line” project going into Maryland was originally budgeted for $2.4 billion but is now estimated to cost $5.5 billion.
Another California project—the Transbay Corridor Core Capacity—has a current cost estimate of $4 billion, which is $1.3 billion over the original estimate.
The Queens Railroad Project in New York was originally estimated to cost $400 million but is now estimated to cost $1.4 billion.
As for the most delayed transportation projects, Ernst’s report lists the Columbus Crossroads corridor improvements in Ohio, which are 19 years behind schedule with an estimated completion date of 2037.
Upgraded rail service from Chicago to St. Louis was supposed to be completed in 2015. The current estimated completion is next year, 11 years overdue.
New Jersey’s Camden Direct Connection is estimated to be finished by 2032, another 11-year delay.
The Transportation Department data did not mention at least three other projects that are $1 billion or more over budget, the Ernst report noted. Federal money for those projects was approved in the final months of the Biden administration but has not yet been allocated.
One project, the Minnesota Light Rail project, which the Twin Cities Pioneer Press newspaper called “the costliest public works project in state history,” was approved for $938.6 million in federal funds.
And more than $5 billion in federal funding was approved for the Subway to Silicon Valley project, while another $3.3 billion was approved for the San Francisco Transit Center, according to the report.
“If you’re receiving taxpayer dollars, you should expect to be held accountable by the American people. No more boondoggles!” Duffy said. “Thank you, Sen. Ernst, for your leadership in Congress to ensure federal dollars are being used effectively and efficiently.”
