With the fate of Wisconsin’s high-speed rail in flux, Gov. Jim Doyle announced Monday he is leaving the issue up to Governor-elect Scott Walker to decide.

In a lengthy statement, Doyle said while he still believes the project is worthwhile, he will not move forward with construction following last Tuesday’s election.

“To me, it doesn’t make sense to not move ahead, but we have had an election,” Doyle said in the statement. “There has been a lot of politics played with this issue, but I have to deal in the real world and think about how this affects real jobs and the real lives of people in Wisconsin.”

Walker ran largely on a platform of creating jobs while also cutting wasteful government spending, denouncing the high-speed rail project as a “boondoggle.”

Doyle said over 400 workers could be laid off now the project is on the verge of being canceled, as well as millions of federal dollars that would have been used to update existing Wisconsin train lines.

Walker said in a statement shortly after being elected he is exploring all legal options to stop the rail project.

On the eve of Walker’s election, Doyle quietly agreed upon a deal with the federal government locking Wisconsin in to spending all $810 million of a federal grant on the project. However, Doyle halted all construction last Thursday.

Doyle said while Walker and the U.S. Department of Transportation can discuss the future of high-speed rail, other states will receive the money if Wisconsin does not use it for rail.

Walker has said he plans to petition the DOT to allow Wisconsin to use the money for other transportation infrastructure projects separate from rail, a plan many critics have questioned.

“There has been talk that this money could be used for roads. That is pure fiction,” Doyle said in the statement.

Meanwhile, New York Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo wrote a letter to U.S. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood last week requesting the high-speed rail money from either Wisconsin or Ohio go to New York, since the governors-elect in both states appear set to reject the projects.

New York has so far only received a small portion of federal high-speed rail grant money, but Cuomo asked LaHood to redirect the money from Wisconsin and Ohio if the new governors decide to nix the rail projects.

“High speed rail could be the 21st Century Erie Canal for New York State and help rebuild Upstate New York’s economy,” Cuomo said in the letter.