Under-construction passenger rail system in the US
California High-Speed Rail (CAHSR) is a publicly funded high-speed rail system being developed in California by the California High-Speed Rail Authority. Phase 1, about long, is planned to run from San Francisco to Los Angeles and Anaheim via the Central Valley, and is partially funded and under construction. A proposed Phase 2 would extend the system north to Sacramento and south to San Diego, for a total of . The project was authorized by a 2008 statewide ballot to connect the state's major urban areas and reduce intercity travel times. Phase 1 targets a nonstop travel time of 2 hours and 40 minutes from San Francisco to Los Angeles, compared to about nine hours on the existing Amtrak "San Joaquins". California legislative overseers do not expect the 2 hr 40 min target will be achieved.
Construction of Phase 1 began in the Central Valley in 2015. Due to limited funding, the project is being built in sections. The state prioritizes completion of the "Initial Operating Segment (IOS)" connecting Merced and Bakersfield. This Central Valley segment is long and thus spans 35% of the total San Francisco–Los Angeles route. The IOS is projected to commence revenue service as a self-contained high-speed rail system between 2030 and 2033, at a cost of $28–35 billion, and will replace current "San Joaquins" service south of Merced. With a top speed of , CAHSR trains running along this section would be the fastest in the Americas.
From January 2015 to December 2023, a total of $11.2 billion had been spent on the IOS – which has under active construction – and on upgrades to existing rail lines in the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles, where Phase 1 is planned to share tracks with conventional passenger trains. Regulatory clearance has been obtained for the full route connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles, which includes the IOS. However, the Authority has not yet received sufficient funding to construct the segments from the IOS westwards to the Bay Area or southwards to Los Angeles, both of which would require tunneling through major mountain passes. As of 2024, the entirety of Phase 1 was projected to cost $106.2 billion.
Supporters of the project state that it would alleviate air traffic and highway congestion, reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and provide economic benefits by linking the state's inland regions to coastal cities. Opponents argue that it is too expensive, and that the funds should be spent on other transportation or infrastructure projects. The route choice has been controversial, along with the decision to construct the first high-speed segment in the Central Valley rather than in more heavily populated parts of the state. The project has experienced significant delays and cost overruns caused by management issues, legal challenges, and lack of a complete funding commitment.
Background.
Legislative context.
High-speed rail in California was first proposed in 1979 by Governor Jerry Brown. In 1982 Brown signed a bill authorizing $1.25 billion in bonds for a high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and San Diego. This law failed due to concerns over its economic viability and environmental impact, and Caltrans' objection to the handling of the project by a private company. In 1993, the state created the Intercity High-Speed Rail Commission. In 1996, the California Legislature and Governor Pete Wilson passed the High-Speed Rail Act, which formed the California High-Speed Rail Authority (the "Authority") to plan, design, construct and operate a statewide high-speed rail system.
In 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger championed a ballot measure, Proposition 1A, which authorized $9 billion in bonds to begin the planning and construction of high-speed rail and a further $950 million to upgrade commuter rail systems in Northern and Southern California that would connect with the high-speed rail system. Proposition 1A, which passed with about 53 percent of the vote, set several requirements for the high-speed rail system, including that the nonstop travel time from the Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco to Los Angeles Union Station should be no more than 2 hours and 40 minutes. Including Prop 1A, the project has received about $23 billion in combined state and federal funding through the end of 2023. As of February 2024, the entire Phase 1 was projected to cost between $89–128 billion, with allowance for future inflation.
Proposition 1A specified several corridors for high-speed rail investment. It outlined four corridors in Northern California (Sacramento–Stockton–Fresno; San Francisco–San Jose–Fresno via the Pacheco Pass; Oakland–San Jose; and Merced/Stockton–Oakland/San Francisco via the Altamont Pass). The Northern California sections were to be connected to Southern California on a route serving Fresno, Bakersfield, and Palmdale before reaching Los Angeles. In Southern California, two corridors were specified – Los Angeles–Riverside–San Diego, and Los Angeles–Anaheim–Irvine. The only specific requirement set by Proposition 1A was to complete a link between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and that any high-speed rail routes constructed should follow these corridors. It did not require that all the corridors must be built, indicate the order in which they should be constructed, or specify precise station locations other than in San Francisco or Los Angeles.
Statewide objectives.
The planned high-speed rail system would reduce travel times between the northern and southern parts of the state. Driving or taking an intercity bus between San Francisco and Los Angeles takes six to eight hours. Since the "Coast Daylight" was discontinued in 1974, there has been no direct rail connection between San Francisco and Los Angeles, with the closest Amtrak service now in Oakland. The only direct rail service from Oakland to Los Angeles – the Amtrak "Coast Starlight" – takes eleven hours and runs once daily. While the "San Joaquins" takes about nine hours, a bus transfer is required for part of the route. High-speed rail is intended to be competitive with air travel; while the actual station-to-station time would be slower than flying, reduced waiting and boarding times and fewer security checks would make total travel times competitive, with other potential benefits including passenger comfort and greater reliability. San Francisco–Los Angeles is the busiest domestic air route in the US, averaging 132 scheduled flights daily.
The high-speed rail system may relieve housing pressure in major urban areas, especially the Bay Area, by providing access to cheaper housing in the Central Valley, which would be particularly beneficial for business travelers and hybrid remote workers who only commute a few times a week. While the rail project may incentivize denser housing and job growth around stations, with cities such as Fresno and Bakersfield planning for major real estate investments in their downtowns, the urban policy advocacy group SPUR noted the risk of urban sprawl as a result of increased housing demand in the Central Valley, and that the state should consider mitigating this in its planning approach. Phase 1 of high-speed rail is projected to reduce annual statewide CO2 emissions by about 0.6 million tons by replacing highway trips and flights; however, the "Orange County Register" has noted this would only account for 0.2 percent of the state's total emissions from all sectors.
In 2023, Caltrans issued the 2023 California State Rail Plan, which is a comprehensive plan to upgrade and modernize the state's intercity passenger and freight rail systems through 2050. Provisions of the plan include increasing the capacity of existing railways, establishing new services, improving service frequencies and train speeds, and integrating ticketing between transit agencies so ticketing through all rail systems can be done statewide. The state rail plan outlines the integration of high-speed rail into the statewide system as its primary north-south passenger link. Although the California High-Speed Rail Authority has not indicated completion dates for the full system, the 2023 version of the state rail plan used 2050 for the completion of both Phase 1 and Phase 2.
Plans, construction and project status.
The project is split into two major phases: Phase 1 is to connect from San Francisco via the Central Valley to Los Angeles; Phase 2 is an extension of that system both to the north from Merced to Sacramento and to the south from Los Angeles via the Inland Empire to San Diego. As of 2024, the High-Speed Rail Authority is targeting completion of the "Initial Operating Segment" (IOS), a -Central Valley section within the Phase 1 route, with under active construction. It has not obtained full funding for the IOS, and no high-speed rail segments outside the IOS have so far been funded. The funding situation is discussed in .
Phase 1.
Phase 1 of the planned route, about long, runs from the Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco to the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center in Anaheim, with intermediate stops planned for Millbrae, San Jose, Gilroy, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings/Tulare (Hanford), Bakersfield, Palmdale, Burbank and Los Angeles. An additional station between Los Angeles and Anaheim, at Norwalk or Fullerton, is being considered. The existing 4th and King Caltrain station in San Francisco is expected to be the northern terminus of Phase 1 until the future completion of the Downtown Rail Extension (now known as The Portal) to the Salesforce Transit Center.
From San Francisco, the planned route runs south to Gilroy before crossing the Diablo Range eastward over Pacheco Pass into the Central Valley. The route branches north to Merced via a flying wye which is intended to serve as the connection for a future Phase 2 extension to Sacramento. As part of Phase 1, Merced is planned to serve as a transfer point to the Amtrak San Joaquins and Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) trains continuing towards Stockton, Sacramento and other destinations. South of there, Madera through Bakersfield stations are located along the main line in the Central Valley. From Bakersfield, the high-speed rail route crosses the Tehachapi Mountains via Tehachapi Pass to Palmdale in the Mojave Desert. It then tunnels under the San Gabriel Mountains to reach Los Angeles and Anaheim.
In the urbanized areas from San Francisco to Gilroy and from Burbank to Anaheim, the Phase 1 route follows existing railroad right-of-ways. In 2012, the Authority adopted a "blended" approach to construction, which would involve high-speed trains sharing track with Amtrak and local commuter trains (Caltrain in the Bay Area and Metrolink in Southern California) in these sections. This approach was adopted to reduce costs and mitigate the impact of construction on surrounding communities, but also limits train speed in these sections to a maximum of . Between Gilroy and Burbank, the planned route will run on dedicated high-speed tracks.
Initial Operating Segment (IOS).
As there has never been funding commitment for full construction of Phase 1, the Authority is advancing work in sections, first targeting full completion of a "Initial Operating Segment" (IOS). It is intended to begin carrying passengers along a limited portion of the route before the full Phase 1 is completed. This initial service would span from Merced via Madera, Fresno, Hanford to Bakersfield. High-speed trains would fully replace existing, slower Amtrak "San Joaquins" service south of Merced to Bakersfield. "San Joaquins" passengers continuing to Southern California currently transfer to Amtrak Thruway buses at Bakersfield. This bus connection will remain necessary until Phase 1 of high-speed rail reaches Los Angeles.
As of January 2025, of the were under active construction. of contiguous guideway were declared complete, making that section ready for track-laying. The remainder of the is expected to complete their guideway by the end of 2026. of extensions to the North and South that would complete the IOS were under engineering design.
The scope of the IOS has changed several times in the project's history. In 2012 it was planned to run from Merced through Bakersfield to Burbank (just north of Los Angeles), a distance of about . This would have closed a major gap in California intercity rail services, as the existing "San Joaquins" terminates at Bakersfield and does not continue on to Los Angeles. In 2016, due to changes in funding and financing plans, the Authority changed the IOS to a northern segment between San Jose and Bakersfield, the "Silicon Valley to Central Valley line". As of 2023, the IOS had been determined as the current definition of from Merced to Bakersfield in the Central Valley, with under active construction. If additional funding becomes available, the Authority still intends to construct the northern Bay Area connection before the southern connection to Los Angeles.
Construction on the IOS began with a groundbreaking in Fresno on January 6, 2015. The first