FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION : PRESS ROOM

FRA will be holding a Presentation followed by a brief Q&A. The Industry Briefing will be held from 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. on Friday June 19th. Click here to register to attend.

Location:   Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill
                 400 New Jersey Avenue NW
                 Washington, DC 20001

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) will hold a series of High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail Workshops to begin the implementation of President Obama’s vision for developing a cohesive national intercity and high-speed passenger rail network. This vision was set forth in FRA’s Strategic Plan for High-Speed Rail (HSR) announced by President Obama, Vice President Biden, and U.S. Transportation Secretary LaHood, and sent to Congress that same day on April 16, 2009.

Through these workshops, FRA is reaching out to the rail community in seven regions across the country to seek its input on the Interim Guidance FRA is required to issue on or before June 17, 2009, for the $8 billion in grant funds provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) for the high-speed rail corridors program, intercity passenger rail grants, and congestion grants. The workshops will enable FRA to discuss the HSR Strategic Plan with key stakeholders such as state departments of transportation, regional planning authorities, metropolitan leaders, associations and labor groups. Under the ARRA, these workshops exclude the participation of lobbyists. In addition, FRA will hold additional workshops at a later date with supplier and other industry groups.

These workshops are not public hearings, although they are open to the public. The goal of the workshops is to take the first steps toward determining how FRA and key stakeholders can best partner together to make the Strategic Plan a reality. During the workshop, stakeholders will have an opportunity to share experiences, raise concerns, provide insights, and make recommendations on several key issues and questions, as well as hear from representatives from a regional perspective. This input will not only to provide FRA with your regional vision of high-speed and intercity rail networks, but it will enable stakeholders to focus on the critical factors that will make their programs a success. The workshop schedule will include the following:

Introduction	10 minutes
Overview of FRA strategic plan and next steps	30 minutes
Amtrak presentation	15 minutes
Q & A	35 minutes
Regional presentation	30 minutes
Break	15 minutes
Working group break-out	1 hour
Wrap-up	15 minutes

The workshops will be held 1:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. on the following dates and locations:

• Southeast Corridor: Charlotte                                                                 May 20
Renaissance Charlotte Suites Hotel
2800 Coliseum Drive, Charlotte, NC

• Florida Corridor: Orlando                                                                        May 21
Marriott Orlando Airport
7499 Augusta National Drive, Orlando, FL

• Pacific Northwest Corridor: Seattle                                                          May 27
Seattle Airport Marriott Hotel
3201 South 176th Street, Seattle, WA

• California Corridor: Sacramento                                                               May 28
Sacramento Marriott Rancho Cordova
11211 Point East Drive, Rancho Cordova, CA

• South Central and Gulf Coast Corridor: Houston                                      May 29
Marriott Houston Airport
18700 John F. Kennedy Blvd, Houston, TX

• Midwest Region: Chicago                                                                          June 1
Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile
540 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL

• Northeast Region: Philadelphia                                                                 June 2
Philadelphia Downtown Marriott
1201 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA

In addition to the workshops, FRA invites members of the public to submit written comments by June 5, 2009, on issues that should be addressed in the Interim Guidance and specific recommendations on the criteria to be used in evaluating grant applications. FRA has created a public docket (Docket No. FRA-2009-0045) for the receipt of written comments. Please visit FRA’s website at: www.fra.dot.gov/us/content/2236 for information regarding the various ways in which comments can be submitted to the public docket.