CHSRA responds to FRA, disputes administration’s core findings

    June 16, 2025
    The California High-Speed Rail Authority says the FRA’s potential grant termination is “unwarranted and unjustified.”
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    the completed Ninth Avenue viaduct
    CHRSA has completed many of the viaducts, overpasses and underpasses for the first 119 miles of high-speed rail track.

    The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) has issued a response to the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) compliance review released at the start of June. In a letter to CHSRA CEO Ian Choudri, the FRA stated its determination to terminate two cooperative agreements based on the findings in the report. 

    In response to the report, Choudri said the FRA’s findings were “unfounded,” “outright misleading” and “disingenuous” assertions and methodologies, further stating that the FRA’s review was “nothing more than rhetoric aimed at justifying a pre-ordained conclusion.” 

    “Termination of the cooperative agreements is unwarranted and unjustified,” Choudri said. “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 his 14-page letter, Choudri disputed each of the FRA’s core findings while highlighting the progress the project has made. Choudri noted CHRSA has completed many of the viaducts, overpasses and underpasses for the first 119 miles of high-speed rail track. For instance, major structures completed include the 4,741-foot San Joaquin River Viaduct in Fresno and the Hanford Viaduct in Kings County, and a railyard for materials laydown and logistics to allow for high-speed rail construction is scheduled for completion this year. 

    “These are momentous achievements,” Choudri said. “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, 53 structures and 69 miles of guideway have been completed.” 

    CHSRA says it is also rejecting the FRA’s claim that it lacks a plan to close a projected $7 billion funding gap, citing California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed extension of the state’s Cap-and-Trade program. This would guarantee at least $1 billion annually through 2045. CHSRA also says its upcoming request for expressions of interest will engage private partners for potential innovative and creative partnerships to help improve cost and project delivery.  

    Chourdi also wrote in his letter 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 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 FRA 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.”