SHAFTER, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom hammered down on a ceremonial railroad tie during a special visit to Kern County on Monday. The action, he says, marks a new phase in California’s High Speed Rail construction.
“We are here to lay some track, to make visible all of the hard work over the past decade,” he said, standing below a recently completed viaduct. “It’s a big damn deal.”
In order to begin laying track on the long-anticipated railway, workers will build a railhead outside the city of Shafter, about 30 minutes north of Bakersfield. This development comes 10 years to the day since high-speed rail construction first began in 2015.
After significant delays and cost overruns, the project is still far from completion, however.
A first phase from Bakersfield to Merced – about a third of the total route – is set to welcome passengers by 2033, if all goes according to plan. The Newsom administration is also working with private high-speed rail lines in Southern California to create a larger network that connects with the state rail system.
Newsom says the rail is an investment in the Central Valley’s future.
“This is not just a transportation project, this is a transformation project,” he said
Could Republicans derail the bullet train?
California’s bullet train, though, is likely to face pushback from a new Trump administration. He’s threatened to claw back federal funding needed to keep the project moving. He did so in 2019, before the Biden administration restored the $1 billion in funding.
But now, the Department of Government Efficiency – a new quasi agency headed by billionaires and staunch Trump allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy – is targeting the project for further cuts, according to a post on Musk’s social media platform, X.
“Originally projected (in 2008) to cost $33 billion; now projected to cost between $88.5 and $127.9 billion,” the agency’s account wrote on the platform.
California Republicans have long ridiculed the project, likening it to a “boondoggle.”
“Precious tax dollars need to be used for projects that will actually improve the lives of Californians, such as enhancing rural road safety projects and supply chain infrastructure, building water infrastructure, and preventing catastrophic wildfires instead of throwing money into another mismanaged pipe dream,” Rep. Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield) said in an emailed statement shortly after the press event.
His district is one of several the train will serve.
Full-steam ahead
The political noise is of little concern to California High Speed Rail chief Ian Choudri, however. He says he’s keeping his head down and focusing on getting the troubled train operational.
“Our focus is on getting the project moving forward,” Choudri said. “Really, I don’t spend any time thinking about who’s saying what.”
Voters first approved the bullet train back in 2008, but the idea for a high-speed rail in the state has been around since the 1980s. The goal today remains an appealing one to supporters: Whisking passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles in a matter of hours, while cutting down on fossil fuel emissions.
The rail dream now ranks as the nation’s most expensive infrastructure project, and it’s still a long way from realizing that initial goal. Newsom said he was hopeful about the project’s future, however; new partnerships between the state and private businesses could help connect passengers from the Central Valley to Southern California and beyond.
He pointed to the High Desert Corridor and Brightline West, which would create a high-speed rail connection between LA and Las Vegas. The state and those lines have entered a cooperative agreement to share certain maintenance and other facilities.
He also touted the number of new jobs – more than 14,000 – attached to the massive infrastructure project, and dismissed cynics who he says have criticized high-speed rail “from the sidelines.”
“We can’t go back [to 2008]. We just have to accept the reality of where we are,” he said.
