Section 502 of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, Public Law 110-432 (October 16, 2008), requires the Secretary of Transportation to ``issue a request for proposals for projects for the financing, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of a high-speed intercity passenger rail system operating within'' either the Northeast Corridor or a Federally designated high-speed rail (HSR) corridor. To satisfy this requirement, the FRA is soliciting and encouraging the submission of Expressions of Interest for potential projects to finance, design, construct, operate, and maintain an improved HSR intercity passenger system in the Northeast Corridor or in one of ten Federally designated corridors. FRA envisions this as the first phase of a qualification process that Congress may follow with more specific actions regarding particular proposals in one or more corridors.

December 16, 2008 Federal Register Notice Requesting Expressions of Interest (72 kb/.pdf)

All correspondence and submissions related to Section 502 are placed in docket FRA–2008–0140 .  Submissions may be made and the docket searched and items viewed through www.regulations.gov .  In the Federal Register notice, FRA requested that participants considering filing an Expression of Interest provide a letter to the docket with names and contact information by Friday, January 30, 2009.  This optional letter is only intended to develop a contact list and shouldn't contain any substantive information.