Panlabas na LinkPAGLABAS NG BALITA: Ang California High-Speed Rail Authority ay Tumugon sa FRA: "Ang pagwawakas ay Hindi Makatwiran at Hindi Makatwiran"
June 12, 2025
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Ian Choudri issued a firm and detailed rebuttal to the proposed termination of two major funding agreements in a letter to Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Acting Administrator Drew Feeley this week. Choudri’s response corrects the record on the FRA’s “unfounded,” “outright misleading,” and “disingenuous” assertions and methodologies, highlighting elements of the review as “nothing more than rhetoric aimed at justifying a pre-ordained conclusion.”
“Termination of the Cooperative Agreements is unwarranted and unjustified,” said Ian Choudri, CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority. “FRA’s conclusions are based on an inaccurate, often outright-misleading, presentation of the evidence. Among other things, the FRA distorts data that the Authority has furnished to the FRA, includes citations to reports that do not support its conclusions, and employs opaque and disingenuous methodologies.”
In a detailed 14-page letter, the Authority meticulously disputes each of the FRA’s core findings, while touting the project’s substantial construction progress and funding plan.
“I must also take this opportunity to dispute, in the strongest possible terms, the misleading claim that the Authority has made ‘minimal progress to advance construction,’” wrote Choudri. “The Authority’s work has already reshaped the Central Valley. We have built many of the viaducts, overpasses, and underpasses on which the first 119 miles of high-speed rail track will run.”
Major structures completed include the 4,741-foot San Joaquin River Viaduct in Fresno and the Hanford Viaduct in Kings County, the largest high-speed rail structure in the Central Valley, spanning the length of twenty-one football fields. A railyard for materials laydown and logistics to allow for high-speed rail construction is under construction and scheduled for completion this year.
“These are momentous achievements,” said Choudri. “Combining feats of engineering, complex logistical and legal coordination, and, on average, the labor of more than 1,700 workers in the field every day, mostly in Fresno, Kings, and Tulare Counties. In total, fifty-three structures and sixty-nine miles of guideway have been completed.”
The Authority also rejected the FRA’s claim that it lacks a plan to close a projected $7 billion funding gap, pointing to Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed extension of California’s Cap-and-Trade program, now referred to as Cap-and-Invest, which would guarantee at least $1 billion annually through 2045. The Authority also noted its forthcoming Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) to engage private partners for potential innovative and creative partnerships that could improve cost and schedule of project delivery.
The letter also took issue with the review process, stating that the FRA’s own monitoring report in October 2024 found no significant compliance issues, and that the FRA’s new position is outwardly inconsistent with its own prior findings.
“There have been no meaningful changes in the past eight months that justify FRA’s dramatic about-face,” said Choudri. “Instead, the FRA has looked at essentially the same facts it considered in the fall of 2024 and simply reached a different conclusion.”
“Hostility to public investments in high-speed rail, and to California’s leadership—hostility that dates back to FRA’s initial attempt to revoke federal funding to the Program in May 2019—appears to be the real basis for the proposed determination.”
The letter also underscores that environmental clearance is complete from downtown San Francisco to downtown Los Angeles and that electrification of the Caltrain corridor between San Francisco and San Jose is finished.
Choudri concluded his response by calling on the agency to withdraw its proposed termination.
“I hope that FRA and the Authority can move forward to work together to support this Program—a project with a big future and great promise to better the lives of Californians and spur economic growth in the state and across the nation.”
Read the Authority’s full response.Dokumento ng PDF
Construction progresses every day on the California high-speed rail project. There are currently 171 miles under design and construction from Merced to Bakersfield. Nearly 70 miles of guideway is completed, 54 structures have been completed, and 30 additional structures are currently under construction between Madera, Fresno, Kings, and Tulare counties. View our latest construction update here.
Since the start of high-speed rail construction, the project has created more than 15,300 good paying construction jobs for residents, a majority going to residents of the Central Valley.
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Para sa pinakabago sa high-speed rail construction, bumisita www.buildhsr.comPanlabas na Link
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Ang mga file ay magagamit para sa libreng paggamit, sa kagandahang-loob ng California High-Speed Rail Authority.
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Speaker Bureau
Ang Bureau ng Mga Nagsasalita ng High-Speed Rail Authority ng California ay pinamamahalaan ng Tanggapan ng Komunikasyon at nagbibigay ng mga pagtatanghal na may impormasyon tungkol sa Programang Riles na Bilis ng Bilis.
Makipag-ugnay
Micah Flores
(C) 916-715-5396
Micah.Flores@hsr.ca.gov