Since its inception in 2008, the Group has issued 18 letters and members have testified before Legislative and Congressional committees 15 times. In March 2023, the California High-Speed Rail Peer Review Group (established by the California legislature to independently appraise the project) gave its concerns about the project's continued viability, writing: It requires the California High-Speed Rail Authority to make the Interim IOS/EOS (Merced to Bakersfield) its top priority. In concert with this, he signed SB 198 into law. CAHSR will thus be the fastest trains operating in the US.īy 2022, amid concern about the slow pace of the project and its increasing costs, Governor Gavin Newsom pushed for the release of the last of the Proposition 1A bond funds in order to get an operating system working in the Central Valley. Maximum train speeds will be about 220 miles per hour (350 km/h) in the dedicated HSR segments and about 110 miles per hour (180 km/h) in the blended segments. Blended HSR systems like this are common in Europe. While Proposition 1A did not specify the use of a 'blended system' in the large metropolitan areas, cost (and other) considerations forced the Authority to adopt this approach in 2012. No significant funding has yet been secured for work connecting the Early Operating Segment with the northern or southern regions (although by 2026 it is planned to have preliminary planning and environmental clearances completed for all the segments in Phase 1 ). Meanwhile, commuter rail systems in the major metropolitan areas of San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles are being upgraded to allow CAHSR to use their tracks, power systems, train control systems, and stations in what is termed a 'blended service'. Scheduled service is planned to begin at the end of 2030. Among these, it required nonstop trains travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles – about 350 miles (560 km) apart by air – in no more than 2 hours and 40 minutes.Ĭonstruction began in 2015 on the Interim Initial Operating Segment ('Interim IOS' or 'Early Operating Segment'/EOS) in Phase 1, which is to run from Merced to Bakersfield in the San Joaquin Valley portion of California's Central Valley. In 2008, voters approved Proposition 1A, which laid out a route connecting the state's major population centers, authorized bonds for initial funding, and established other requirements. Governor Jerry Brown initially proposed this project, but its first steps came in 1996, when the California State Legislature and Governor Pete Wilson established the California High-Speed Rail Authority to create a plan to present to the voters for approval. Main article: History of California High-Speed Rail some planning and preparatory steps in the next priority segment.environmental clearance for the entire Phase 1 system, and.some other passenger rail improvements elsewhere in the state,.

the electrification and modernization of Caltrain in the Bay Area,.completion of the Merced-to-Bakersfield segment in the Central Valley,.Today this project is the largest public works project in the country, and is employing over 1600 construction workers each day.Īs of 2023, projected funding through 2030 only provides: When the project began, there was no comparable agency with the skillset necessary to manage this project, so the Authority has had to acquire it the hard way. Various aspects of the project have drawn criticism, including its route, its management, delays in buying land and building the line, very inaccurate initial cost estimates, cost overruns, and insufficient funding to complete the system.

This is the most comprehensive rail plan in the nation. The state has a rail modernization plan which lays out the driving vision for CAHSR as well as indicates how CAHSR would integrate with other passenger rail services within the state. However, there is no funding path at this time to complete even Phase 1 (much less the entire system). The completed high-speed rail system is intended to reduce travel times in the state, particularly between the major population areas of the San Francisco Bay Area (in the north of the state) and Greater Los Angeles (in the south), to reduce pollution and carbon emissions, to ease automotive and air traffic congestion, and to boost the economies of the Central Valley and other regions. (However, there are significant uncertainties concerning the timeline and the costs of achieving this.) The trains would be the highest speed trains operating in the US at 220 mph (350 km/h). It is anticipated that it will be able to put about 1/3 of Phase 1, a 171-mile (275 km) segment, into operation by the end of 2030. California High-Speed Rail (also known as CAHSR or CHSR) is a publicly funded high-speed rail system being developed in the U.S.

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