California’s high-speed rail project just got a needed boost in the arm, and it wasn’t a vaccine; the Biden administration restored nearly a billion dollars worth of Federal funds that were abruptly cut by the previous administration in 2019.
Even so, the project that originally called for a European-style high-speed train that would link Los Angeles to San Francisco in under three hours is far from guaranteed. Proposed in 2008 with a projected cost of $32 billion and completion by 2029, construction is only taking place for now on a 160-mile stretch from Bakersfield to Merced, with both ends far from the original big-city connections.
Present estimates for the whole job, which is on hold after a cutback order by Gov. Gavin Newsom, are for a cost as high as nearly $100 billion and a completion date in the 2030s. That would cover a stretch from just south of Los Angeles up to Oakland, and would not include projected extensions to San Diego in the south and Sacramento in the north.
Proponents argue that the cost would be worth it because cars and their pollution are choking the state’s highways and air, and because the cost in the long run, and carbon savings over air travel would pay off. They hope that there will be more money in a federal infrastructure bill, and that a privately-funded LA-area to Las Vegas high-speed line being built by Brightline could save costs on the Bakersfield to Los Angeles leg.
