With an initial approval of funding in 2008, an original operation year of 2020, and the first construction beginning in 2015, 119 miles of the planned 171-mile track for the Initial Operating Segment of a California high speed railroad are under construction as of late 2025. However, only 70 miles have been deemed ready for track construction.
The concept of a high-speed rail in California has been considered since the 1990s. The California Intercity High-Speed Rail Commission was established in 1993 to begin plans for a high-speed rail. After being pushed back for years, the high-speed rail was finally approved by California voters on the November 2008 ballot as Proposition 1A.
The California High-Speed Rail (CAHSR) is intended to connect California’s urban centers, promote the economy, and preserve the environment. Currently, development of the high-speed rail is in Phase 1. Phase 1 plans to connect the San Francisco and Merced area to the Los Angeles and Anaheim area, with stops in the Central Valley including Fresno and Bakersfield. Phase 2 is planned to extend the “existing” system to both Sacramento and San Diego.
The CAHSR aims to reduce travel time in California by a method other than air travel. The creation of the CAHSR is intended to create jobs through construction; boost the economy by connecting major urban centers in California, and reduce the environmental impacts of travel.
Detractors of the project criticized the CAHSR for its costliness and delays. Regarding Phase 1, the initial cost was expected to be $33 billion dollars, and the project planned to begin operation in 2020. The actual cost is speculated to be between $80 and $128 billion, with very little of the rail constructed, even nearing the end of 2025. The CAHSR is currently estimated to begin operation between 2031 and 2033, more than a decade later than the initial plan for 2020.
Railroad construction in the US is vastly more expensive in comparison to 58 other countries; the few countries that have higher construction costs are due to tunnelling, a problem that the US has relatively minimal of. Part of the high cost was due to land acquisition issues. It has been partially challenging due to the US’s strong private property laws. The city of Millbrae settled with CAHSR in April of 2025 after a lawsuit filed over the use of land.
Environmental concerns have been the cause of multiple lawsuits The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires public projects to determine and disclose environmental impacts before a project’s approval. Kings County engaged in a decade-long legal battle against CAHSR using CEQA over the encroachment on its land. Bakersfield-based developer Coffee Brimhal and cities Atherton, Menlo Park, and Palo Alto all sued under CEQA. Other parties, such as Dignity Health, First Free Will Baptist Church, and Kern County, sued over noise during construction.
Additionally, funding has been inconsistent throughout the project at the federal level. The first Trump presidency was against the project, although the Biden presidency revived funding for the project. Recently, in Trump’s second term, $4 billion worth of federal funding was cut from the project. About 15% of the project’s funding is provided federally, and the remaining 85% is provided by the state through Proposition 1A and the Cap-and-Trade program.
The development of the California high-speed rail has been subpar. Currently, there are no true high-speed rails; the closest is the Amtrak. There are a few plans for the development of these rails, such as the Northeast Corridor, the Brightline West between Southern California and Las Vegas, and more.
Many other developed countries have a high-speed rail, most completed within the timeline of the CAHSR. Spain has a track length of 4,000 km; and the European Union has a total of 12,000 km of track length as of 2022. Between 2008 and 2023, China constructed nearly 40,000 kilometers of railroad, or roughly 25,000 miles. Morocco, a developing country, assisted by a French railroad company, which had left the CAHSR project due to “political dysfunction,” built the system within seven years, finishing in 2018.
