“But we have plans in place and everyone is focused on getting that done.”Ĭalifornia is suing to block the Trump administration from withdrawing a $929 million grant for the project on the grounds that the state isn’t making enough progress toward the deadline.īeyond that, the plan calls for expanding to 171 miles (275 kilometers) connecting Merced, Fresno and Bakersfield, which it calls “three of the fastest growing areas in California.” It calls for testing electrified high-speed trains by 2025 and put those trains in service by 2028-29. It’s going to be hard, no question about that,” said authority spokeswoman Melissa Figueroa. It must also have environmental clearance for all 520 miles (837 kilometers) to meet its deadline to use $3.5 billion that the state won under the Obama administration to build an initial segment of track in the Central Valley. The draft business plan, which is released every two years, projects that managers can meet the more urgent federal deadline in two years.īy then the state must have 119 miles (192 kilometers) completed, with track on the ground. The new plan continues to project that the entire San Francisco to Los Angeles route will be running by 2033 - a quarter-century after California voters first approved it - “assuming funding is available when needed.”
The authority raised that to $77 billion in the 2018 business plan and added $2 billion to the estimate just last year. The 2016 business plan estimated the project would cost $64 billion. The increase in the projected baseline cost is smaller than previous jumps, with Kelly calling it ”virtually unchanged” and within the ranges of recent previous estimates.
The cost increase is mainly because the plan pushes back the completion of a high-speed rail link between Silicon Valley and the Central Valley by 18 months, to late 2031. “We continue to make investments in all three regions of the state,” said Brian Kelly, the project’s chief executive, adding that “California is further along than I think a lot of people think.” It also tries to make the case that building first in the Central Valley remains more efficient than the alternatives. The 168-page report attempts to counter those critics by emphasizing the $3 billion already going to so-called “bookend” projects in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas. The authority’s latest business plan comes amid pressure from state lawmakers, some of whom want to peel off more of the money to help commuters in the state’s population centers. SACRAMENTO, Calif (AP) - The California High-Speed Rail Authority on Wednesday bumped its overall cost estimate for completing the rail line between San Francisco and Los Angeles to $80.3 billion, blaming inflationary increases and better cost projections for a $1.3 billion boost that still is smaller than in previous years.Īfter years of embarrassing cost overruns and delays, managers of California’s ambitious bullet-train project insisted that they are on pace to meet a preliminary 2022 federal deadline for laying track along the first segment in the Central Valley.īut that will use up virtually all the money the project has available. 9, 2019, file photo shows the high speed rail viaduct under construction over the San Joaquin River near Fresno, Calif. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated.