Record of Decision

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has issued a Record of Decision (ROD) for Phase 2 of the All Aboard Florida (AAF) (aka Brightline) Project (the Project) in accordance with the Council on Environmental Quality’s regulations for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (Pub. L. 112-141), and FRA’s Procedures for Considering Environmental Impacts (64 Federal Register [FR] 28545, May 26, 1999). In 2015, FRA issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) studying the potential impacts of Phase 2 of the Project. At the time, FRA’s consideration of AAF’s 2013 Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing loan application was the Federal action that triggered the NEPA process. FRA did not issue a ROD following its publication of the FEIS as the Project proponents explored other funding sources, thus removing FRA’s role for completing its responsibilities under NEPA and related statutes and laws. However, AAF has recently renewed its application process for a RRIF loan that excludes some elements of the project as reviewed in the FEIS. Because the FEIS was issued in 2015, FRA performed a re-examination process to determine whether the passage of time, AAF’s proposed design modifications, or any other changes or new circumstances require FRA to issue a Supplemental EIS. FRA determined that the minor changes since the publication of the FEIS did not warrant a Supplemental EIS and has issued this ROD to complete the NEPA process.

Record of Decision
Appendix A: Programmatic Agreement for Section 106
Appendix B: Biological Opinion
Appendix C: Response to Comments received since publication of the FEIS