The construction of California’s high-speed rail system is at a “turning point” as a stretch of the project through the Central Valley is on track for completion in the next few years, the project’s chief executive said Tuesday.
A 119-mile stretch of the rail system that will eventually span some 500 miles is currently being constructed in the Central Valley, with the first segment set to be completed in the next year, according to California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Brian Kelly, who spoke at a panel discussion hosted by the Bay Area Council business group.
Kelly said the 119-mile stretch from Madera to Wasco that is currently being constructed will then be extended to include Merced and Bakersfield.
That 175-mile section of the project is on track to be operational by the end of the decade, Kelly said. Rail service would then slowly expand to the system’s end terminals in San Francisco and Anaheim.
“I see us at the turning point of real important advancement,” he said.
Kelly said environmental reports have been approved for roughly 300 miles of the system and approval for an additional 130 miles are expected by this summer.
The project was kick-started in 2008 when voters approved a $9.95 billion bond measure to support high-speed rail across the state, which was initially projected to cost roughly $30 billion and be completed by 2030.
Since then, the price tag has soared north of $100 billion, and High-Speed Rail Authority officials have yet to outline where most of the funding will come from to complete the first phase connecting San Francisco and Anaheim, let alone a second phase that would add connections between Merced and Sacramento and Los Angeles and San Diego.
Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Tuesday that some funding for the project could be included in a forthcoming federal infrastructure bill.
LaHood, who co-chairs the U.S. High-Speed Rail Coalition of business and labor groups in support of high-speed rail systems across the country, said his group has advocated for the inclusion of $10 billion for high-speed rail projects in a future federal infrastructure funding package.
Federal legislators also allocated $36 billion for high-speed rail in a $1.2 trillion infrastructure funding package that President Jose Biden signed in November.
“You are about as well-positioned as any state in the country to receive significant federal dollars,” LaHood said to the panelists.
Darlene Gee, senior vice president of the infrastructure design firm HNTB, compared the high-speed rail project to the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, which spent nearly two decades in design and development before construction was completed in 1937.
“Transformative infrastructure has always been fraught with huge challenges, challenges that people forget once it’s all done,” Gee said.
The bridge cost roughly $35 million, equivalent to more than $750 million when accounting for inflation, and was completed ahead of schedule and $1.3 million under budget, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Kelly argued that while the project has faced well-documented challenges since 2008, the economic and environmental potential of a high-speed rail connection across the state remains “immense.”
“There’s all kinds of opportunity here and before us, and we should not turn back,” he said. “This is the right investment for the future of California.”
Can we just end this now and focus on real problems in CA?
Only in DEM controlled CA
https://tinyurl.com/29cw7au4
People running this state building just half a bridge, managed to allow it to be monumentally screwed up.
capital political review https://tinyurl.com/3p2aakr7
But why should they care, it’s not like it’s their money ! ! ! !
An what a great way to buy votes and get campaign contributions.
Other studies show it will never achieve the speeds they promised nor get the ridership they dreamed about. It will always have to be subsidized by your taxes whether you use it or not. The cost far exceeds the benefits and courage should be summoned to admit this was a waste of money and just stop it. The last $750 should go for a nice metal plaque to place on the useless unfinished arches declaring it a monument to stupidity.
Hear hear. I read that the “projections” used to describe the original bond issue to voters used revenue and ridership estimates of maximum capacity of trains running at max capacity of passengers. It was a clear intent to deceive the voters in order to get high paying jobs for everyone on the project.
Just imagine the cost of bringing high speed trains into the heavily populated Bay Area and LA! In 100 years, I doubt we’ll have the high speed line they promised.
Turning into garbage.
Nowhere to Nowhere, kill it.
Given the proven ability to meet virtually, there’s little need to continue pushing the HSR or BART.
The cost has ballooned, the schedule has been delayed, the scope is unknown, financing is unknown, ridership is unknown….
Cancel it now.
Someone could run for Governor on a platform of ending this painful fiasco and win.
I don’t know when the shift happened, but at some point it became completely acceptable to double down on stupid.
I’m sure it’s because, like most things they touch, lawyers ruined it. Our society loves litigation and admitting fault opens you to a lawsuit. The result is everyone doubles down on stupid, no one course corrects, and everything continues to get worse.
The next thing we might hear, is that it will generate a profit, not requiring further financial support!
That would a 1st in CA
We already have high-speed transport from Northern to Southern California, and it’s much faster than the train.
There are already stations in Sacramento, Oakland, SF, San Jose, even Concord now, Fresno, Ontario, Palm Springs, Burbank, LA, Orange County, Long Beach, San Diego. You can travel from one end to the other in 90 minutes or less, and you can choose which transport company you want to travel on: Southwest, Alaska Air, Jet Blue, JetX, United, Delta, American, etc.
As someone else posted- this will never be self-sustaining, let alone profitable. It will be several more decades before it is finished (I thought it had already been killed off), and is there high demand to travel from say Madera to Wasco? Nope. A complete waste of taxpayer money. And California voters voted for this. Unbelievable.
Exactly DD…that money would have been better off spent on adding another lane on Hwy 5 in both directions.
Agree. Putting the state in the transportation industry vs airlines was a very stupid decision. No rail company would bother. Amtrak loses about 1.5 billion/year, and some of it is in the heavily populated Eastern corridor (Boston,NYC,Philadelphia,Baltimore,Washington DC). It’s a loser.
Of course Joe Obiden uses it from Delaware to the White House when he shows up for work. That alone makes it a bad decision.
I agree. Kill the choo choo and add a lane to I-5 in each direction. Separate the lane from the existing lanes and make it a high speed lane with a speed limit of something like 90 or so. Ideally, raise it even higher and require a special permit to drive in it. The permit would require demonstration of driver ability and minimum car standards (which most cars already meet, the most critical is tire speed rating). Cover the administrative costs via a fee to administer the program.
Another benefit of the extra lane would be improving traffic flow disruptions when a semi decides to pass another and slows down everyone in the number one lane with the resulting “accordion effect.”
“The project was kick-started in 2008…initially projected to cost roughly $30 billion and be completed by 2030.” —Like fixing the Bay Bridge will cost only $900k.
“Since then, the price tag has soared north of $100 billion, and High-Speed Rail Authority officials have yet to outline where most of the funding will come from” —The politicians knew they presented a low estimate.
“That 175-mile section of the project is on track to be operational by the end of the decade, Kelly said.” —But the whole project was to complete by 2030.
CANCEL THE HSRR
This colossal waste of money along with the ever increasing fees, tolls and taxes begs the question, where is the state’s (formerly our) money going? It’s not to infrastructure because the tolls and gas tax had to be raised. It’s not to schools because they are in an abominable state.
I am not minimizing the cost of police, fire, Caltrans, et al but there is always a money grab for more. The HSRR and the new Bay Bridge are the obvious wastes but what are the others?
… a train to nowhere.
And big waste of money.
I hate this boondoggle so much, every time we get updates on it I hope it’s that they are pulling the plug and someone will comes to their sense. Our schools are terrible, MDUSD is about to have a strike, we have homeless drug addicts everywhere overdosing like crazy, but someday maybe you’ll be able to go from SF to SD on a goddamn train? You can get a plane ticket for less than $200 and be there in under 2 hours.
Actually this is part of the solution to the homeless problem, they will be adding extra cars just for the homeless. Keep them off the streets.
Total waste of taxpayers money and will cost triple $$$ than original estimates due to uncontrolled cost overruns.
SLUSH FUND!!! A Big pile of money sitting there that politicians can grease the palms of big contributors.
FROM YOUR POCKET!!!
I would like to see a list of which people get the most kickbacks cash from this
exorbitantly priced boondoggle payed once again by the California taxpayers,
and some by the federal government…..
Organized labor has to be high on the list. All trades that work on this project have to be union.
Doesn’t look like anyone alive today will see the completion. In about five or ten years there will be new technology that will replace high speed rail.
News Alert (future)
Today the High Speed Rail Trian made an emergency stop approximately 20 miles outside of Madera. Apparently 18 individuals were removed from the train using two stolen personnel boom trucks. They could be seen jumping into waiting suv’s. Reports are coming in stating that the 240 passengers were robbed of their belongings by these 18 individuals. One passenger was shot in the leg and another was pistol whipped. No description was given of the robbers.
Some reports are also coming in saying that “homeless” looking passengers were not robbed of their belongings.
It is not yet known just how they got the train to stop.
By the time it’s done it will cost so much for a trip we’ll take our cars because it will cost so much less, Of course, gas will be $12. Bucks a gallon by then, You know when it’s finally built by 2042. I’ll be Dead and Buried before it’s ever done.
Hxxx NO! ..billions thrown down an empty well… billions more needed to fund the high speed rail between Bakersfield and Modesto?! gimme a break! Use that $$ to build desalination plants and rain water retention facilities… Newsom said he would stop this nonsense! Where is our leadership? ….. oh… Cali doesn’t have any 🙁
First of all, it’s not high speed rail, and it’s not remotely green. It will be powered by slow, diesel burning locomotives. It will travel between two of the least desirable cities in California. How progressive.
The project broke ground in 2015, and in 2019 they claimed zero emissions locomotives would be traveling at 200MPH by 2028.
This project is doomed. The turning point is knowing when to fold, and apparently they have not arrived at that obvious conclusion.
Just give back all the campaign contribution money & kickbacks then shut it down.
This is how private engineering firms and state bureaucrats turn bonds into boondoggles!
A high-speed train is not needed.
It’s a novelty.
CA can’t afford a novelty.
Cut the losses, give the people back their land, let what has already been built be a lesson for future idiots.
Great idea!
This is dumber than Gavin Newsome..
Kill the project – not needed, not necessary, and not practical
Dumb and Dumber!
TURN IT OFF! California politicians are financially ignorant as are the voters who keep electing these morons.
Southwest Airlines – Oakland to LA is only $74 roundtrip for 1 traveler
(carry on bag is $35 extra)
1 hour flight and guaranteed not to derail if there is an earthquake.
I guess the train will be handy if you’re going to Wasco…. ever been to Wasco? I’ll be kind and not comment.
Amtrak operates 100-150mph and there are services throughout the country. A high speed train (200mph) is just 50mph faster then Amtrak, so instead of building a high speed train, the fund could go to improve Amtrak. If people want to go fast, take a plane because it could do 500mph. So cancel the project!
I didn’t realize they had trains running that fast. No wonder all those millennials walking on the tracks wearing headphones are killed.
As we head into a cost prohibitive fuel shortage, perhaps Newsom will write some unilateral legislation to restrict the trains to 55 mph.
The slogan could be: “Save Fuel, Save a millennial”.
How progressive.
I know, don’t give him any ideas…….
Jose Biden money printer go brrrrrrrr
If they really wanted to get this done, they would just hire the Japanese engineers … it would be done in less than two years, me thinks. Their tran-game is fire.
Around 60 farms in the Central Valley have been majorly impacted with this project. They sold off portions of their farms and had to move irrigation ditches, etc. Not to mention, stopping their growth operations by absurd and impractical divisions of their properties. The farmers have been contacted over 100 times from lawyers making changes to the easements and reassessing the value of the property being sold. California owes the farmers money and stopped paying them for the property they bought. Many of these farmers, who have worked for generations, supplying California with the best fruits, vegetables and nuts have tapped into their line of credit with their banks to continue farming. The state has people working in this project that know nothing about farming and suggested to a farmer to move their mature Walnut Trees and place them in pots. The farmers have been getting the runaround treatment from the state. Go figure…typical people working for the state have no clue and have lawyers running this messed up bureaucracy project.
Another ruse is to starve farmers of water. Politicians are dispicable.
Newsom drained our reservoirs last year, he will do it again. Dispicable. He and his Pelosie family are as bad as Biden. Destroying the once bountiful California. Becoming fabulously rich because of the graft from government handouts. The steal is never-ending.
Around 60 farms in the Central Valley have been majorly impacted with this project. They sold off portions of their farms and had to move irrigation ditches, etc. Not to mention, stopping their growth operations by absurd and impractical divisions of their properties. The farmers have been contacted over 100 times from lawyers making changes to the easements and reassessing the value of the property being sold. California owes the farmers money and stopped paying them for the property they bought. Many of these farmers, who have worked for generations, supplying California with the best fruits, vegetables and nuts have tapped into their line of credit with their banks to continue farming. The state has people working on this project that know nothing about farming and suggested to a farmer to move their mature Walnut Trees and place them in pots. The farmers have been getting the runaround treatment from the state. Go figure…typical people working for the state have no clue and have lawyers running this messed up bureaucracy project.
SF and LA’s new homeless express ride for their freebies…free drugs, low income housing, etc. Wonderful.
I wonder how many miles of high speed rail China has built in the same amount of time?
This was and is a waste of money look at all the money that could help with the drought we could of built some reservoirs to hold water what is more important water or a train to nowhere the money they wasted on it so far Bart was supposed to be self sufficient but look at all the money they get from the state & the federal government are tax’s are paying for it the people in charge of it are making a lot of money off of it when are the people going to wake up and get smart we need a proposition on the ballot to stop the stupidity as long as the money vampires can keep sucking up money it will keep going on it will cost over 3.000.000.000 dy the time they finish it .