{"id":1532155,"date":"2022-06-29T10:16:25","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T14:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1532155"},"modified":"2022-06-29T10:16:29","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T14:16:29","slug":"ernst-squeal-award-goes-to-national-capitals-purple-line-a-billion-dollar-boondoggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ernst-squeal-award-goes-to-national-capitals-purple-line-a-billion-dollar-boondoggle\/","title":{"rendered":"Ernst \u2018Squeal Award\u2019 Goes to National Capital\u2019s Purple Line, a \u2018Billion-Dollar Boondoggle\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fernst-squeal-award-goes-to-national-capitals-purple-line-a-billion-dollar-boondoggle%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1532155&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Calling it a \u201cbillion-dollar boondoggle,\u201d Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) named a chronically over-budget and behind-schedule public transportation project in the nation\u2019s capital as the winner of her latest Squeal Award highlighting waste and fraud in government spending.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe National Capital Purple Line, which was supposed to connect Washington D.C.\u2019s subway lines in the Maryland suburbs, is on track to being yet another billion-dollar-boondoggle. It was over budget and behind schedule <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/transportation\/2022\/01\/12\/purple-line-maryland-when-open\/\">before it even started,<\/a>\u201d Ernst said in a statement made available to The Epoch Times on June 29.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConstruction costs have steadily increased from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mta.maryland.gov\/articles\/341\">$2 billion<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mta.maryland.gov\/articles\/341\">$3.4 billion,<\/a> while the overall price tag to build, operate, and manage the system has ballooned from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mta.maryland.gov\/articles\/341\">$5.6 billion<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mta.maryland.gov\/articles\/341\">$9.3 billion<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0Ernst said.<\/p>\n<p>The Iowa Republican added that \u201cas the costs go up, the completion date keeps getting pushed back! The service, originally expected to begin in <a href=\"https:\/\/mdot.maryland.gov\/tso\/pages\/newsroomdetails.aspx?newsId=55&#038;PageId=38\">spring 2022<\/a>, is now delayed until <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mta.maryland.gov\/articles\/341\">fall 2026<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Purple Line extension of the Washington region\u2019s public transportation subway system is designed to connect Maryland\u2019s heavily populated inner suburbs through an East-West corridor.<\/p>\n<p>Construction began in 2017 but the project\u2014the biggest public infrastructure construction effort in Maryland history\u2014has been plagued with delays, cost-overruns, and court fights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe project has literally been stopped in its tracks for two years because the companies building it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/trafficandcommuting\/purple-line-construction-stops-as-builders-prepare-to-quit\/2020\/09\/22\/47de2236-fcfc-11ea-9ceb-061d646d9c67_story.html\">quit<\/a>. Ironic, since the Purple Line was promoted as \u2018Transit that Works,&#8217;\u201d Ernst said in her statement.<\/p>\n<p>The project\u2019s problems go beyond costs and scheduling, however, because, the Iowa Republican pointed out, \u201cto get the rail service back on track, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/transportation\/2021\/11\/05\/purple-line-dragados-construction\/\">a contractor with its own track record of cost overruns and delays<\/a> has been hired to complete the construction of the system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.caf.net\/en\/sala-prensa\/nota-prensa-detalle.php?e=192\">company<\/a> selected to produce the trains for the Purple Line was responsible for making the D.C. subway system\u2019s \u2018least reliable\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Calling it a \u201cbillion-dollar boondoggle,\u201d Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) named a chronically over-budget and behind-schedule public transportation project in the nation\u2019s capital as the winner of her latest Squeal Award highlighting waste and fraud in government spending. \u201cThe National Capital Purple Line, which was supposed to connect Washington D.C.\u2019s subway lines in the Maryland suburbs, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1532155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1532155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1532155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1532155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1532155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}