(The Center Square) — The California High-Speed Rail Authority has responded to the Federal Rail Administration’s plan to terminate $4 billion in federal funding for the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco high-speed rail project. 

Its response elaborates on its plans for continuing initial work on a 119-mile segment between Madera, which has a population of nearly 70,000, and Poplar Avenue in Kern County, which is near Shafter, a small city of just over 20,000 residents northwest of Bakersfield.