Dive Brief:
- The California State Rail Authority, having long touted a plan to start construction of its bullet train near Los Angeles and head north to San Francisco, could change course and build the first leg of its $68 billion rail system in the Bay Area instead after studying the new option, the Los Angeles Times reported.
- With the project already two years behind schedule, starting in the Bay Area would get at least one segment up and running faster, as it wouldn’t include the portion of the route that entails punching through the Tehachapi and San Gabriel mountains with tunnels.
- The northern route could potentially invigorate the project and draw investors as well as political favor, according to the LA Times.
Dive Insight:
Talk of big changes to the rail system come at a time when some California lawmakers are demanding oversight hearings on the project, contending that the authority wasn't up front about future costs and the project’s overall feasibility.
Regardless of the authority officials' hints that they might be reversing their strategy on the bullet train project, they continue to push for major development coups in Los Angeles. The authority signed an agreement with Burbank, the rail’s current starting point, to provide $800,000 to find a site for a future station. In addition, it started talks with a Chinese-based company about a deal to link the bullet train to their trains in Las Vegas and also have been in negotiations with Burbank about a piece of airport land the authority might want to use in the future.
The biggest obstacle in the way of a move, according to the LA Times, is the political blowback that would occur, making current grumblings from southern California lawmakers and civic leaders minuscule in comparison.
"You can’t ignore Southern California or Los Angeles or Orange County and say we are going to go north, period," transportation official and former Assembly majority leader Richard Katz told the LA Times. "It made sense to start in the south, given the population and the serious transportation problems here."
