Setbacks mount as bullet train’s costs skyrocket to US$77B, opening delayed
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. The projected cost of California’s bullet train between San Francisco and Los Angeles has jumped to US$77 billion and the opening date has been pushed back four years to 2033, according to a business plan released Friday.
The plan by the California HighSpeed Rail Authority presents the latest setbacks for a project that’s been beleaguered by delays and cost overruns since voters first gave it the green light in 2008.
Among the challenges in the latest plan: A lack of money and the difficulty of weaving through mountain passes between Silicon Valley and the inland Central Valley, which rail executives hope to complete by 2029.
Doing so will require a fresh infusion of cash from the Legislature or the private sector, said Brian Kelly, the project’s new chief executive. If completed, it would be the nation’s fastest train, carrying people between the two major cities in less than three hours. “You cannot build a mega-project of this magnitude on a pay-as-you-go basis,” he told reporters Friday.
While US$77 billion is the baseline cost estimate, the plan estimates total costs could be as low as US$63.2 billion or as high as US$98.1 billion. It brought fresh fire from critics who doubt the high-speed train will ever be built. The last plan, presented in 2016, estimated the project would cost US$64 billion and be open by 2029.
“Let’s cut our losses and use the billions not yet wasted on (highspeed rail) to instead improve freeways, highways and roads and perhaps improve existing rail systems throughout California,” Republican state Sen. Andy Vidak said.
The project is under an audit that could expose more management and cost issues when released later this year.
Kelly has promised to be more transparent about the project’s challenges, including by assigning costs to every potential risk, such as trouble acquiring land or securing environmental clearance. Lawsuits over land have bogged down construction in the Central Valley and driven up costs. While 190 kilometres of track is under construction, the state has just 1,300 of the roughly 1,800 needed parcels in that area, Kelly said.
The ultimate goal is to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles — and eventually Sacramento and San Diego — but the immediate focus is opening track between San Francisco and the Central Valley, an agriculturally dominant, less-populated portion of inland California.
Rail proponents say linking the two areas would be an economic boon, as housing costs are rising in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley is in need of jobs.
That portion of track is set to be done by 2029, marking a four-year delay, and big challenges remain.
Dan Richards, chairman of the rail agency’s board of directors, said it wants to work with private investors to tackle that portion of the project.