The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has sent a final notice to New Jersey, directing the state to repay $271 million in federal funds for a $9.1-billion commuter-rail tunnel project that its governor, Chris Christie, (R) canceled last October.
The Access to the Region's Core (ARC), conceived before Christie took office in January 2010, was to be a nine-mile-long commuter rail link running under the Hudson River, from Secaucus, N.J., to midtown Manhattan. In a final decision issued on April 29, U.S. DOT's Federal Transit Administration (FTA) said Christie and New Jersey Transit "terminated the project for reasons manifestly within their control" and thus must repay the federal funds expended. [See pdf of the decision.]