USA: California High Speed Rail Authority CEO Ian Choudri wrote to acting Federal Railroad Administrator Drew Feely on June 12 rejecting the premise of FRA’s Compliance Report issued on June 4. The report threatened to cut the authority’s access to around $4bn of federal funding.
In a fiercely worded rebuttal, Choudri centred on the argument that FRA’s own monitoring report in October 2024 found no significant compliance issues, arguing that the regulator’s new position was outwardly inconsistent with its own previous findings.
‘Termination of the [federal grant] Cooperative Agreements is unwarranted and unjustified’, said Choudri. ‘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.’
He believed that the review process was ‘aimed at justifying a pre-ordained conclusion’, adding that ‘there have been no meaningful changes in the past eight months that justify FRA’s dramatic about-face. Instead, the FRA has looked at essentially the same facts it considered in the fall of 2024 and simply reached a different conclusion.’
In thinly veiled criticism of the Trump administration, Choudri added that ‘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 programme in May 2019 — appears to be the real basis for the proposed determination.’
Construction and funding plans defended
The letter defends CHSRA’s progress in constructing the Early Operating Section of the high speed line through the Central Valley, while also noting that completion of electrification of the Caltrain corridor south of San Francisco will enable high speed services to reach the city using what it terms ‘blended operation’.
‘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 [190 km] of high speed rail track will run.’
Addressing FRA’s criticism about the funding gaps facing the project, Choudri reiterated that both FRA and independent auditing bodies had not raised significant concerns about the project budget in recent months.
He wrote that the authority’s 2024 Business Plan estimated a cost range for completing the EOS of between $32·7bn and $36·3bn, of which $28·2bn had already been identified. This left a funding gap of $7bn, which was a central tenet of the FRA report.
In mitigation, Choudri highlighted California state governor Gavin Newsom’s revised May budget, which ‘includes a proposal to extend the Cap-and-Trade programme through 2045 and guarantee at least $1bn in revenue annually’. This funding stream would ‘bridge this gap and provide CHSRA with the funds it needs to complete the EOS by 2033. In addition to Governor Gavin Newsom’s support, the proposed extension plan builds on years of sustained backing from California’s elected leaders and their commitment to advance high speed rail.’
