California High-Speed Rail
California High-Speed Rail is a publicly-funded high-speed rail system under construction across California by the California High-Speed Rail Authority. The project was authorized by a 2008 statewide ballot to connect the state's major urban areas. The project is to be constructed in two major phases. Phase 1, as approved by voters will connect San Francisco and Los Angeles in two hours and 40 minutes. A Phase 2 would extend the system north to Sacramento and south to San Diego, for a total system length of. With a top speed of, CAHSR trains would be the fastest in the U.S. and among the fastest in the world.
Phase 1, which is about long, is planned to run from San Francisco to Los Angeles and Anaheim via the Central Valley. As of July 2025, only the Initial Operating Segment, a section of Phase 1 that spans 35 percent of its total length, has advanced to construction and will connect communities from Merced to Bakersfield. Revenue service on the IOS is projected to commence in 2032 as a self-contained high-speed rail system, at a cost of $36.7 billion.
Construction began in the Central Valley in 2015, with completion of the IOS originally planned for 2022. As of August 2025, a total of $13.8 billion had been spent on the project, mainly constructing the IOS. Other project expenditures include 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. However, the California High-Speed Rail Authority has not yet received sufficient funding commitment to construct the full buildout of the Phase 1 system, currently estimated at $89–$128 billion. As of August 2025, the Authority's interim goal is to connect the Bay Area to the IOS via a connection at Gilroy, which is south of San Francisco, to either Bakersfield or Palmdale, by the year 2038. The estimated cost to build the San Francisco–Bakersfield system is $54 billion, and the estimate for the San Francisco–Palmdale system is $84 billion. The extension to Palmdale will connect the project to the Southland via the Metrolink system, while the Burbank-Los Angeles-Anaheim segment is constructed to complete the Phase I system.
The project has been politically controversial. Supporters state that it would alleviate housing shortages, 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 the project is too expensive in principle, has lost control of cost and schedule, and that the budgetary commitment precludes other transportation or infrastructure projects in the state. 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 permitting hold-ups, and inefficiencies from inadequate and sporadic funding. The Authority has also faced notable delays in securing agreements to relocate utilities, such as power lines and water infrastructure. A state-appointed high-speed rail peer review group confirmed that the project may fall short of promises made to voters in several areas, including ridership and travel times.
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. The law failed due to concerns over its economic viability, environmental impact, and Caltrans' objection to the handling of the project by a private company. In 1993, the state created the California 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 to plan, design, construct and operate a statewide high-speed rail system.In 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger championed 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. Prop 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 in Los Angeles should be no more than two hours and 40 minutes.
After the prioritized funding of the San Francisco to Los Angeles section, Prop 1A proposed additional potential corridors for high-speed rail investment:
- Oakland–San Jose
- Sacramento–Merced
- Los Angeles–Inland Empire
- Inland Empire–San Diego
- Los Angeles–Irvine
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 Amtrak Coast Starlight, the only direct rail service from Oakland to Los Angeles, takes eleven hours and runs once daily. While the Gold Runner 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. The entry of high speed rail into the transportation market typically results in improved on-time flight performance, service quality, and price competition. High-speed rail in California would reduce flight congestion on one of the busiest domestic air routes in the US, with the SF-LA short haul air routes 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 commute only 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 600,000 tons by replacing highway trips and flights; however, it 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 in order for ticketing through all rail systems to be able to be done statewide. The plan outlines the integration of high-speed rail into the statewide system as its primary north-south passenger link. Although the 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 San Francisco to Los Angeles via the Central Valley; Phase 2 is an extension of Phase 1 both to the north from Merced to Sacramento and to the south from Los Angeles to San Diego via the Inland Empire. As of 2024, the Authority is targeting completion of the "Initial Operating Segment", a section within the Phase 1 route in the Central Valley, with under active construction. The project has received approximately $23 billion in combined state and federal funding through the end of 2024, and has spent a total of $13.8 billion. As of February 2024, the entire Phase 1 was projected to cost between $89–128 billion, with allowance for future inflation.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, 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 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 Gold Runner and Altamont Corridor Express trains continuing towards Stockton, Sacramento and other destinations. As of the 2025 Supplemental Project Update, the Authority is considering delaying construction of the Merced extension in order to prioritize an earlier connection to the Bay Area through Gilroy. 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 the 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 in these segments, which would involve high-speed trains sharing track with Amtrak and local commuter trains, specifically Caltrain in the Bay Area and Metrolink in Southern California. 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.