California high-speed rail accomplishes only one legislative goal in 2026

All but one of the legislative proposals that the California High-Speed Rail Authority deemed essential to keeping the construction of the rail line bridging Merced and Bakersfield on schedule failed to become law, Yue Stella Yu writes for Cal Matters. Authority Chief Executive Ian Choudri pitched several ideas that would allow the agency to tap into local tax revenue and fast track environmental reviews to speed up the project, many of which faced opposition from local governments.

Cal Matters reports that most of Choudri’s failed pitches “remained ‘concept-level ideas’ that the high-speed rail authority never developed into written proposals, said authority spokesperson Micah Flores. When asked why, Flores told CalMatters that the agency is not tasked with writing laws. ‘Legislators who learn about the concepts may choose or author legislation independently to help the project,’ he said.”

Voted first approved the high-speed rail project in 2008, with plans to build a line from Los Angeles to San Francisco by 2020. The CHSRA now estimates it will finish the project in 2040, and spend around four times as much as original estimates, at minimum. The line from Merced to Bakersfield is the first leg of the project.