Rendering via the California High Speed Rail Authority

Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) has found bipartisan success in an ongoing effort to audit the California high-speed rail project.

Patterson made the request with Senator Jim Beall (D-San Jose), chair of the Senate Transportation Committee. The Joint Legislative Audit Committee today approved the request on the heals of a report that the Central Valley section of track cost would jump by nearly $3 billion.

“Concern for this project is no longer divided along party lines. Those who support high-speed rail should be as alarmed — if not more so — as those opposed to the project,” Patterson said in a statement. “Even project managers have admitted to serious funding issues that have made a true north to south high-speed train impossible to complete as approved by voters. The High Speed Rail Authority will now answer to the auditor and we will all finally get the non-partisan, independent reality check we’ve been asking for.”

The audit’s cost is estimated at $350,000, and should take between six and nine months, according to an estimate from the California State Auditor.