California High-Speed Rail Authority urged the US Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to reconsider its plan to cancel the USD 928.6 million funding for the HSR project.
“I urge the FRA to reconsider the precipitous and unjustified action it is contemplating. Termination of the FYIO Agreement would be unwarranted, unprecedented, and legally indefensible, and it would gravely harm a historic project on which the FRA and the CHSRAhave collaborated productively for nearly a decade. The FRA should reconsider the rash and unlawful action it is contemplating andinstead engage in reasoned and structured discussion with the CHSRA of its concerns,” Brian P. Kelly CEO of California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA), said in a response letter to Jamie Rennert, Office of Program Delivery at FRA.
The CHSRA representative explained in a statement that the threat to de-obligate these funds ignores the steady progress made on the project that now has 24 active or completed construction sites, employs some 2,600 workers in the Central Valley, and includes the participation of some 488 small businesses, including 15 from outside California.
In February, FRA announced its intention to cancel USD 929 million financing for the project and, in addition, the U.S. Department of Transport announced that is exploring every legal option to seek the return from California of USD 2.5 billion in Federal funds FRA previously granted for the project.
In a letter sent to CHSRA, the FRA Administrator, Ronald Batory, explained that the action was considered because CHSRA has failed to make reasonable progress on the project as defined in the Agreement, significantly endangering substantial performance.
The USD 68 billion high-speed rail project envisages the construction of a 1300 km (800 miles) system linking Southern California, Sacramento San Joaquin Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The construction works were launched in 2015, and the opening of project’s first section was scheduled for 2022.
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