Newsom Administration Says the Project at a Critical Point

The Newsom administration says high-speed rail construction is at a critical point. Money is needed now to complete the final piece of the Central Valley portion, according to Brian Annis, chief financial official at the California High-Speed Rail Authority. And, he said, the state is on the cusp of choosing a contractor to lay the bullet train’s track. That’ll cost money, too.

“The project has taken longer than originally thought. The scope has increased, which has added some costs,” Annis said. “But again, we’re hitting some major milestones here where we’re almost fully completed with our design.”

Without this funding, the Newsom administration argues, fewer workers will be needed and layoffs could start as soon as next summer.

More than 75% of those workers hail from the Central Valley — about 1,100 head to construction sites daily for jobs that come with health care and hard-to-find stability.  For one Central Valley carpenter, working near home for more than three months at a time had been uncommon.

“He’s home all the time now because this job has some length to it,” said Chuck Riojas, the executive director of the Building Trades Council for several Central Valley counties.

Assemblymembers Not Convinced of the Investment

But the Newsom administration is having a hard time convincing the Legislature that the investment now is worth it.

“I support the concept of a high-speed rail in California, but I think our current approach is not working,” Democratic Assemblymember Luz Rivas, who represents the San Fernando Valley, said at a hearing in June. “There are other approaches that have been presented that could increase rail ridership, and I hope that those will be part of the discussion.”

A poll funded by the Assembly Democrats found that Californians are evenly split between killing high-speed rail or continuing it, but that support for the project is far higher among Democrats, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Friedman argues that better local service will boost support for trains, eventually restoring voters’ favor for high-speed rail. “We need to create a state of train riders in order to have the political will to finish this project,” she said.

Newsom also wants to fund local transit — his May revision proposed $1 billion toward improving regional and local rail services. The debate is over how much.

“It’s not really an issue of high-speed rail or local transit. What the governor is proposing is to advance both,” said Annis at the rail authority.

But Friedman is dubious whether $1 billion is sufficient, saying it would “be helpful. But… tracks are expensive. Trains are expensive.”

Some Democrats Show Support of Funding High-Speed Rail

Some urban Democrats have been vocal about accepting the governor’s proposal as is. Sen. Scott Wiener from San Francisco tweeted in June that he supports Newsom’s funding plan because “High-Speed Rail is a critical part of California’s transportation & climate future.”

Most Senate Democrats support moving ahead with funding high-speed rail, Senate leader Toni Atkins said. But she, too, wants to see more money for local transit projects in her region.

The San Diego Democrat said she’ll advocate for funding to move train tracks along the coast in Del Mar, where bluffs are eroding as much as six inches a year.

“We’re within 21 inches of the bluffs, so we are underway to move that line. That is the second busiest line in the country,” Atkins said.

With legislators having left Sacramento for a month-long summer break, decisions on rail and transportation funding likely won’t be settled until after they return in mid-August. Then negotiations kick into high gear before the legislative session ends on Sept. 10.

Elkind, the UC Berkeley climate lawyer, sees politics at play in the stand-off over high-speed rail:

“Given that it doesn’t seem like there’s much hope of the project coming anywhere close to the major population centers anytime soon, you’re seeing these legislators trying to essentially get leverage to salvage… money for their districts.”