Transportation
USDOT Announces $5B for Rail Grants, Including $2.4B Taken Back From Calif. High-Speed Rail Project
While California and federal officials tangle over grant funding in court, infrastructure work proceeds on he state's planned high-speed rail network, such as Cesar Chavez Underpass in Fresno. Crews have completed about 60 structures for the project and are working on another 29.
The U.S. Dept. of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration issued a notice of funding opportunity for the National Railroad Partnership Program Sept. 22. The notice makes more than $5 billion available for grant awards—including $2.4 billion the agency says was de-obligated from the California High-Speed Rail Authority grants that the state agency is suing to recover.
The grants are available to states, tribes, Amtrak, local governments and others for intercity passenger rail infrastructure projects. In a statement, Drew Feeley, acting federal rail administrator, emphasized the grant’s availability to improve railroad grade crossing safety.
The rail agency originally issued the funding notice last year as the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Grant Program, and rescinded it this month. Applications under the reissued funding notice are due by Jan. 7.
The updated notice removes references to six executive orders, mostly from the Biden era but also one establishing equal employment opportunity hiring practices that President Lyndon Johnson signed in 1965. It also incorporates an executive order from President Donald Trump targeting diversity initiatives.
“Our new National Railroad Partnership Program will emphasize safety—our number one priority,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement.
The $2.4 billion comes from about $4 billion in grants DOT rescinded from the California agency in July. It accounts for the largest piece of the funding opportunity. Duffy once again called the planned 800-mile high-speed rail system a “boondoggle” when announcing the notice.
One of the terminated high speed rail agency grants was awarded under the same Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Grant Program.
The California agency is suing DOT to have the grant terminations tossed out. It also asked a judge to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the department from awarding the money to another grantee or otherwise spending the money elsewhere.
The authority “has been prepared for this possibility and will take imminent legal action to block this misguided effort by the [railroad administration],” a spokesperson said via email following the funding announcement.
“The ... decision to terminate federal funding for California high-speed rail was unlawful, unwarranted and is being challenged in federal court,” the spokesperson said. “Now, the attempt to redirect a portion of that funding, currently the subject of litigation, is premature.”
A judge has not yet ruled on the Sept. 22 filing by attorneys for DOT and for the rail agency on a motion to dismiss the case.
Meanwhile, construction continues on the high-speed rail system’s initial 171-mile-long segment from Merced to Bakersfield. Crews have completed work on nearly 70 miles of guideway and about 60 structures, and 29 structures are under construction in Madera, Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties.
The state agency has also received environmental clearance for 463 miles of the 494-mile line between San Francisco and Los Angeles/Anaheim.
