Administration to Claw Back California HSR grants

[John_Perkowski]

The Administration intends to cancel $900 million plus in funding for the California HSR project. In addition, the Administration may seek a forfeiture of the entire grant because California is deeply off schedule from the grant proposal.

[John_Perkowski]

And here is the New York Times

[eolesen]

As they should. The grant proposal's goal is being abandoned.

Wisconsin didn't get to spend the $810M for their cancelled project wherever they wanted to (e.g. more upgrades to track between MKE-CHI), so why should California?

[Bob Roberts]

As they should. The grant proposal's goal is being abandoned.

The Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) was written for Central Valley service only (each end of the line was planned for 'later'). Since Newsome plans to finish that segment it appears that California is seeing the federally funded portion of the project through. FFGA's exist for the purpose of ensuring than neither funding party backs out and gets cold feet. As long as Central Valley work continues it is very unlikely that the fed can claw back any of the cash.

[John_Perkowski]

The Train to Nowhere.

Excuse my cynicism.

[eolesen]

As they should. The grant proposal's goal is being abandoned.

The Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) was written for Central Valley service only (each end of the line was planned for 'later'). Since Newsome plans to finish that segment it appears that California is seeing the federally funded portion of the project through. FFGA's exist for the purpose of ensuring than neither funding party backs out and gets cold feet. As long as Central Valley work continues it is very unlikely that the fed can claw back any of the cash.

Yeah, disagree.

Upon written notice, the Grantee agrees that FRA may suspend or terminate all or
part of the financial assistance provided herein if the Grantee has violated the
terms of this Agreement, or if FRA determines that the purposes of the statute
under which the Project is authorized would not be adequately served by
continuation of Federal financial assistance for the Project. Any failure to make
reasonable progress on the Project or other violation of this Agreement that
significantly endangers substantial performance of the Project shall provide
sufficient grounds for FRA to terminate this Agreement

Overview of the Central Valley Segment
The Central Valley segment that is the subject of this Funding Plan incorporates an alignment from
approximately adjacent to the Madera Amtrak Station to Poplar Avenue in Shafter as described in the
Final Environmental Impact Reports/Environmental Impact Statements (FEIR/EIS) for the Merced-Fresno
and Fresno-Bakersfield sections. The segment includes two stations that are environmentally cleared at
Fresno and Kings/Tulare. The segment will be a fully electrified high-speed rail segment suitable and
ready for high-speed train operations that, upon completion, could be put into use by one or more
passenger rail service providers. The segment will first serve as the nation’s first test track for highspeed
trains (over 200mph) and the Authority will run high-speed revenue service over the segment
once it completes the Valley to Valley Line, as described in the 2016 Business Plan. As required under
the Federal grant which the Prop 1A funds are matching, if the development of the Valley to Valley Line
is significantly delayed then the existing state Amtrak service could use the segment on an interim basis
to provide faster service to their customers, as was described in the Authority’s Business Plans.
However, this is a back-up option and not the primary goal of completing this segment.