California’s long-delayed bullet train slated to run in the Central Valley by 2032
Sacramento, California – The high -speed railway project in California could operate in the Central Valley by 2032, but it is far from guaranteeing the funding it needs to connect the North to the San Francisco Bay region and in the south in the direction of Los Angeles, according to a report of officials published on Friday.
It will cost about $ 87 billion to build between Gilroy, about 80 miles southeast of San Francisco and Palmdale, about 37 miles north of Los Angeles, according to the High Speed Rail Authority report. This section should start to operate in 2038.
“Although the challenges remain, the same goes for the potential to deliver a modern transport system worthy of the ambitions of the state – that which reflects the scale, the complexity and promise of California itself,” wrote the CEO of the Ian Choudri Authority in the report. “Let’s build it.”
The project is designed to give birth to runners on nearly 500 miles between San Francisco and Los Angeles. When voters approved a proposal in 2008 to authorize a deposit to finance a third of the project, the cost was estimated at $ 33 billion and was to be operational by 2020. It could now cost up to $ 128 billion to build, the estimated authority last year. Managers will publish an update estimate in a business report next year, said spokesperson for the Micah Flores authority in an email.
There are 119 miles of construction in progress in the central valley. But the State must progress to build larger population centers near the Bay and Los Angeles region and secure stable funding sources to attract potential private investors, the report said. The project desperately needs private sector help. The authority recently heard of 31 potential private investors who expressed their interest and began to meet them this month.
A section of 171 miles in the central valley between Merced and Bakersfield should cost nearly $ 37 billion. This is slightly up compared to a previous estimate, but the authority said that this figure would have increased to $ 51 billion if that had not taken recent economic measures.
The project has received nearly $ 24 billion in funding to date, most of which come from the State through an obligation and money approved by the voters of the State’s ceiling and exchange program. The rest came from the federal government. But the Trump administration said in July that it was drawing $ 4 billion in project funding, which the authority quickly continued to try to restore.
The authority spent around $ 14 billion on the project until May this year, according to the new report. Dozens of structures have been built in the Central Valley, including viaducts, sub-bumps and viaducts, as well as 70 miles of Guideway, the report indicates.
President Donald Trump and transport secretary Sean Duffy both criticized the project as a “train for nowhere”.
“The railway that has been promised to us still does not exist, and will never do it,” wrote Trump on Truth Social in July. “This project was very expensive, too regulated and never delivered.”
Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom wants the legislators to reutorize the state cap and exchange program until 2045 and ensure that high -speed rail receives $ 1 billion a year. The program is expected to expire at the end of 2030.
