As of June 2020, 4,000 construction workers, 73 percent of whom are from the Central Valley, were employed at 32 separate active construction sites operating simultaneously along a 117-mile stretch of the MB line. It has been especially good at creating jobs for Central Valley construction workers and private contractors. Originally pitched as an environmentally friendly alternative form of transportation, the CHSRA line is no different than any other pork-barrel project. Thus far, the only speed record this train has set is the unprecedented rate at which it has burned through state and federal tax dollars. However, a lack of state oversight coupled with ad hoc financing pushed costs for the MB line well past the initial estimates. The MB line’s original projected cost made up one-fifth of the entire high-speed rail’s total cost.
Gavin Newsom (D) took office in January 2019, he ignored his initial misgivings to shut down the Bakersfield Merced (MB) portion of the project and decided to move full steam ahead with construction, promising to deliver an operational line by 2029. Jerry Brown’s dream of uniting California’s coastal metropolises and parts of the Central Valley has transformed into a disjointed, mismanaged fiscal nightmare with rising costs every single year following its inception. The $100 billion cost is 23 percent greater than the highest estimated cost of $81.4 billion that Citizens Against Government Waste projected in an extensive September 2008 joint report with the Reason Foundation and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation.
Initially budgeted at $35 billion, former California Gov. To date, nearly 8,000 construction jobs have been created since the start of construction.After 12 years of delays, mismanagement, and political gridlock, the total cost estimate for the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) has reached $100 billion. The California high-speed rail project is currently under construction along 119 miles in California’s Central Valley at 35 active job sites. In addition to the website, printed and/or electronic copies of the Final EIR/EIS are available upon request. The Final EIR/EIS can be found on the authority’s website, hsr.ca.gov. Revisions to the Draft EIR/EIS made in response to comments.Public comments received on the Draft EIR/EIS and Revised/Supplemental Draft EIR/EIS and responses to comments.Mitigation measures proposed to reduce environmental impacts and effects.An analysis of alternatives, including impacts and effects.The Preferred Alternative for board consideration, identified in the Final EIR/EIS as the portion of Alternative A to Scott Boulevard in Santa Clara, includes an East Brisbane Light Maintenance Facility and excludes the additional passing tracks proposed in the other build alternative studied in the Final EIR/EIS, Alternative B. Both Caltrain stations would undergo alterations to accommodate high-speed trains, including modifications to existing tracks and platforms.īoth alternatives include constructing a light maintenance facility, straightening tracks to improve travel times and installing rail corridor safety improvements. Under both high-speed rail project build alternatives to be considered by the board, an interim rail station is planned at 4th & King streets in San Francisco – until the connection to Salesforce Transit Center is made – along with a station at Millbrae that offers a direct Bay Area Rapid Transit connection to San Francisco International Airport. If approved, this project section will move a step closer to being shovel ready for when preconstruction and construction funding becomes available. The board will consider certifying the San Francisco to San Jose project section Final EIR/EIS and approving the Preferred Alternative between San Francisco and Scott Boulevard in Santa Clara during its two-day board meeting August 17 and 18. We look forward to the board’s consideration of this document in August.” “With 380 miles from the Bay Area to northern Los Angeles County already complete, today’s release brings us into San Francisco and nearly 423 miles to be environmentally cleared. “We’re making true progress on nearing full environmental clearance for the entire Phase 1 high-speed rail project,” said CHSRA CEO Brian Kelly.
If approved by the CHSRA Board of Directors in August, this project section and its environmental document will complete full environmental clearance for high-speed rail in Northern California. The Final Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (Final EIR/EIS) was released by the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) for the approximately 43-mile San Francisco to San Jose project section in Northern California.