California high-speed rail suffers fresh blow as rural segment branded illegal

California’s already-delayed high-speed rail project faces yet another obstacle from local community organizations — this time near Merced, which sent a legal letter demanding the agency stop all work on a planned station in the rural town.

Organizations including the California Rural Legal Assistance and the Community Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, accused the rail authority of violating state law by making changes to a rural stretch of the planned bullet train in a cease-and-desist letter sent last week.

“The HSRA simply has no legal authority to start implementing the project in a way that deviates
from the one the Legislature and the public have funded for the last decade,” the letter read.

According to the letter, the High-Speed Rail Authority in the summer issued a request for firms to provide designing and building services for the segment of the rail from Merced to Madera. Those are two cities in the Central Valley, roughly 33 miles apart.

However, in that request, the route is characterized as running from south of Mission Avenue outside the City of Merced to Madera.

But that contradicts state law, the organizations alleged, which demands that there be “a new combined station in downtown Merced.”

The alleged re-routing invites a potential lawsuit to the project that’s already bogged down by other legal challenges, the organizations warned.

“The High Speed Rail Authority has shown a consistent disregard for California state law and the role of the California legislature by unilaterally deciding to re-route the high speed rail system, shift station locations, and downgrade the entire Central Valley segment to single-track,” the organizations wrote.

The re-routing allegedly was first proposed in the rail’s new business plan this year. Debate over that plan included questions over whether the plan met all legal requirements, including regarding a new route.

The new routes are likely related to the fact that the rail is facing a critical cash bottleneck and could run out of money by the end of 2027. The California High-Speed Rail Authority’s Inspector General warned the project’s funds will run dry if it doesn’t secure more financing.

The estimated cost of the train project has ballooned to a staggering $231 billion, according to one estimate, with completion now delayed until roughly 2039. However, the rail authority pegs the project cost at $126.3 billion after a reassessment this year.

With the money crunch, the state’s long-troubled bullet train could be forced to dramatically shrink its first operating segment, potentially leaving both Merced and Bakersfield off the initial route.

California may have to pour its remaining money into completing a much smaller stretch of track between Madera and Poplar Avenue in rural Kern County, an isolated endpoint surrounded largely by farmland and orchards, project Inspector General Benjamin Belnap told KCRA.

The train isn’t just facing community pushback in Merced. Nearby Bakersfield, the city of Shafter and developer Lennar Homes are plowing ahead with 1,200 homes in the same area off Highway 99 where the state’s rail authority plans to build tracks.

Mayor Chad Givens said the housing project may force the high-speed rail authority to moves its trains, telling The Fresno Bee the city would go to court to defend the planned property development.

“You’ve got a city and a pretty high-volume developer willing to fight against high-speed rail,” Givens said.

The project has also faced questions about the high price tag and whether governments funds are used effectively.

The inspector general of the High Speed Rail Authority said this month that contractors hired for the project had squandered hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds on first-class travel, Uber rides and other unauthorized expenses.

The come as Republicans criticize the project as a dead end.

“California families can barely pay their rent,” said Assembly Republican Leader Alexandra M. Macedo (R-Tulare) in a statement Tuesday.

The project is far from complete since workers broke ground on the project in 2015. Only this year did the ill-fated rail project enter what officials called the “track-laying phase.”  

The California Post reached out to the High-Speed Rail Authority for comment on the cease-and-desist letter.