FOIA response from Federal Railroad Administration reveals agency has no records of cost benefit analyses for high speed rail initiatives, despite pressures on federal budget.
WASHINGTON – Despite major pressure on the federal budget, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has prepared no cost-benefit analyses on any of its multibillion dollar high-speed rail initiatives, according to information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies (Crossroads GPS), and posted on the website Wikicountability.org.
While President Obama repeatedly touted high speed rail as a key initiative to “win the future”, the Federal Railroad Administration’s FOIA response reveals that the Obama Administration has not conducted cost benefit analyses of its high speed rail projects, unless analyses occurred outside of the agency overseeing the projects.
According to the FRA’s response to Crossroads GPS:
“…The agency’s files do not contain any records related to cost benefit analyses created by or on behalf of the Federal Railroad Administration related to the construction of a national high-speed and intercity passenger rail network, including but not limited to the $53 billion proposes spending for high-speed rail development, the Corcoran-Borden high-speed rail project, the Orlando-Tampa high-speed rail project, the Los Angeles-San Francisco high-speed rail project, or the Northeast corridor high-speed rail project, and including any abstracts or summaries of such analysis.”
Crossroads GPS filed its initial FOIA request on February 17, 2011, asking for “any and all cost benefit analyses created by or for the Federal Railroad Administration related to the construction of a national high-speed and intercity passenger rail network, including but not limited to the $53 billion proposed spending for high speed rail development, the Corcoran-Borden high-speed rail project, the Orlando-Tampa high speed rail project, the Los Angeles-San Francisco high-speed rail project, or the Northeast corridor high-speed rail project, and including any abstracts or summaries of such analyses.”
The request also noted that, according to U.S. Department of Transportation chief economist Jack Wells, applicants for high-speed rail projects were requested to provide cost-benefit analyses, and that FRA project manager Laurie Sayles had written that such analyses exist, though they were not as yet publicly available.
“The Obama Administration’s lack of accountability on major infrastructure projects should raise red flags up and down the federal government,” said Crossroads GPS president Steven Law. “Preparing multibillion dollar initiatives without analyzing the benefits and costs is not only irresponsible, it is an immoral way to spend the tax dollars of hard-working Americans.”
The full Federal Railroad Administration FOIA response letter from Assistant Chief Counsel William Fashouer can be viewed here and on the Wikicountability.org website.
Crossroads GPS launched Wikicountability.org in March 2011 to make federal departments and agencies more accountable to the public. Groups and individuals are able to upload their own FOIA requests and responses to the website, creating a nationally crowd-sourced clearinghouse for data concerning the Obama Administration.
Crossroads GPS is a policy and grassroots advocacy organization that is committed to educating, equipping and mobilizing millions of American citizens to take action on the critical economic and legislative issues that will shape our nation’s future in the years ahead.
For more information, contact Jonathan Collegio at [email protected] or (202) 559-6424.
