Biden touts billions for high-speed rail

President Joe Biden on Friday touted the billions of dollars his administration recently committed to passenger rail projects, including a little more than $3 billion for California’s slow-moving high-speed rail project in the San Joaquin Valley.

The two biggest projects — and recipients of the federal funding — are both in California: the California High-Speed Rail project between San Francisco, Los Angeles and Anaheim, and a largely private project called Brightline West between Rancho Cucamonga in San Bernardino County on the outskirts of Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

The $12 billion project is projected to open before the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Speaking in Las Vegas, Biden hailed the California high-speed rail project as “the most ambitious rail project in the Western Hemisphere” and boasted that it would offer weary travelers the chance to ride from Southern California to the Bay Area in three hours versus the current six- to eight-hour drive.

Biden said he’s long supported the California project — even restoring cuts implemented during the Trump administration — and said he would continue his backing.

“Folks, we’re started now.”

On Friday morning, Brian Kelly, the CEO of the High-Speed Rail Authority, said that the $3 billion federal investment, which will go toward purchasing six electric trains and completing construction in the Central Valley, will keep the project on schedule. The authority hopes to begin service between Bakersfield and Merced between

Brontë Wittpenn/

The Chronicle

just

getting 2030 and 2032.

Most construction so far has been focused in Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties where at least 10 major viaducts, bridges and overpasses and underpasses have been constructed.

“It could not be done without this investment,” Kelly said. “It’s huge.”

House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Central Valley Rep. Jim Costa and former California Gov. Jerry Brown each emphasized how the project is necessary not only to reach California’s climate goals, but to catch California — and the rest of the U.S. — up with places such as Europe and Asia, where highspeed rails are widespread.

“We hear that we’re going to compete with China. Well, China has 20,000 miles of highspeed rail,” Brown said. “So we’ve got to get going.”

Pelosi mentioned a trip to China during which she took a highspeed rail from Beijing to Tianjin — roughly the same distance as

San Francisco to Fresno — in just under half an hour.

“We have to be on the forefront as well,” she said. “And everyone in our country is not attuned to that, but I hope that by example California will show them the way.”

But Brown added that the billions won’t be enough to achieve the ultimate goal — linking the Central Valley to economic centers like the Bay Area and Los Angeles.

“We’re going to spend billions more. That’s what it takes,” he said. “You want to be No. 1 in the world? You gotta spend big bucks.”

But getting sustained funding as costs have ballooned from the original $33 billion estimate — the entire project is now expected to cost more than $100 billion — has proven difficult as questions arise about the project’s viability. Lawmakers said Friday that more funding at the federal level will be needed to get the project to the finish line.

Courtesy of the California High-Speed Rail Authority

Sustained federal funding would “not only complete California’s high-speed rail dreams and visions, but really will lead as an example for a network across the country,” Costa said.

“That’s what it’s going to take,” he said. “That federal partner on the long-term just as we have under the federal highway system.”

The $3 billion investment, he said, was a “first step” in that goal.

Asked about the project’s past struggles and whether this new round of funding will have oversight, Kelly said the rail authority has made an effort to “turn the management around and move forward” and regularly reports its progress to the inspector general, the California Legislature and the public.

“We haven’t been silent or quiet about the fact that the project got off to a tough start,” he said. “The reason we’re performing better is because we made important steps to manage risk, govern the project and be very transparent about what we’re doing.”

Brown added that the federal funding, despite the project’s many obstacles, was “a big vote of confidence” from the president.

“This is a question of can America make it or not?” he said. “I say we can, and this project is going to lead us on our way.”

“We’re not going away,” Pelosi added. “This is going to happen. … We have to have high-speed rail.”

In addition to the two big high-speed rail projects, Biden’s passenger rail plan also includes up to $500,000 each to plan for new or expanded rail service on the Capitol Corridor route between San Jose and Auburn with extensions to San Francisco, Novato, Salinas and Reno; the Central Coast Corridor with more frequent service between San Jose and San Luis Obispo and possible service to Santa Cruz and Watsonville, and rail service between Sacramento, Chico and Redding.

Across the nation, other big rail projects due to receive funding include upgrades to existing rail routes to better connect Northern Virginia and the Southeast with the Northeast Corridor; expand and increase service between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh; create a “higher speed” connection between Raleigh and Richmond, Va.; invest in Chicago Union Station improvements; and improved service in Maine, Montana and Alaska.

A conceptual rendering shows the planned California High-Speed Rail train, which would run from the Bay Area to Los Angeles and Anaheim. The federal government announced $3 billion in support for the project.