LOS ANGELES – Two transportation projects have been denied federal MEGA grant funding for a plethora of reasons. The denial impacts funding for the CA High-Speed Rail and Metro Express Lane expansion to the 105 freeway.
The California High-Speed Rail requested $1.3B in federal funding from the new Mega grant program. Federal Department of Transportation has decided their applications are not recommended for funding, with the reason being that the projects are not cost-effective.
LA Metro applied for $400m for West Santa Ana Branch (WSAB) and $45m for 105 ExpressLanes. They did not win any grants. Stated reasons: not cost-effective, not submitting a required analysis, and not having the capacity to carry out project.
For new federal Mega grant program, LA Metro applied for $400m for WSAB and $45m for 105 ExpressLanes. They did not win any grants. Stated reasons: not cost-effective, not submitting a required analysis and not having capacity to carry out project (WSAB).https://t.co/5X3nC6zgyY https://t.co/h87yxKr1KJ pic.twitter.com/7x11B2Irqw
— numble (@numble) January 10, 2023
Metro Express Lanes are controversial as they charge users a fee to occupy the once-free carpool lanes. The conversion of the lanes from High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) to pay-as-you-go also impacts local city’s infrastructure as more cars take surface streets as opposed to the freeway.
Metro attempted to solve this issue with a maintenance fee being assessed to those who purchased a transponder for the Metro Express Lanes but those in the Rancho Palos Verdes peninsula balked at the $4 monthly maintenance fee if they didn’t complete the required two monthly round trips.
The fee was ultimately reduced to $1 per month.
3 Comments
Is there an actual story here somewhere, or just a tweet?
The story is the projects were denied funding. The tweet leads you to the documents.
CA high speed rail project is a boondoggle filled with fraud and useless spending. It will never get finished. Fraud in the inducement when it was voted on dozens of years ago.