The California High Speed Rail Authority's 700-mile, $68 billion project, when completed, will be the first “true” high speed rail system in North America, with 200-mph-plus trainsets operating on a dedicated right-of way. The entire system is expected to be in operation by 2028.
California Governor Jerry Brown joined other leaders as the CHSRA broke ground on the project.
“Today’s groundbreaking represents the culmination of literally decades of work to bring high speed rail to California, going back to Jerry Brown’s first two terms as governor,” said HSR advocate and project supporter Robert Cruickshank, a board member and former Chairman of Californians for High Speed Rail. “But more important, it represents the end of six years of political and legal wrangling. After California voters approved the high speed rail project and gave $9 billion to fund it in the November 2008 election, NIMBYs living on or near the proposed route did everything in their power to prevent HSR from being built. They sued at every possible opportunity, and lobbied the Legislature to deny authorization to sell the Proposition 1A bonds.“Those efforts delayed the project’s groundbreaking, originally planned for 2012. But in 2014 the opponents were handed a series of decisive defeats. The Legislature had already voted to authorize the sale of the Prop 1A bonds in 2012. In June 2014 they agreed to give 25% of the cap and trade revenue to HSR, which gives a big boost to the project’s finances for years to come. NIMBY lawsuits also fared badly, with the state Supreme Court siding with the Authority and then the federal Surface Transportation Board ruling at the end of 2014 that their approval trumps CEQA.
“Today’s groundbreaking was about more than just starting construction. It represents a very real turning point, the moment when HSR stops being an idea and becomes reality. That in turn will change the politics around HSR. No longer will it be realistic to talk about HSR as a possibility, as something that might not happen. And it will no longer be realistic to talk about major route changes, like bypassing the Central Valley cities by going along I-5. Instead the discussion will finally be about the details—whether to build a tunnel from Palmdale to Burbank, how to finish funding the project, and so on.”
The Federal Railroad Administration said in early December it intends to grant both Amtrak and the CHSRA waivers from its "Buy America" requirement for the non-domestic final assembly of up to four prototype Tier III high speed rail trainsets. Amtrak is at work on the "New Jersey Raceway" portion of its Northeast Corridor to increase top speeds to 160 mph.
The waivers apply only to the final assembly of up to two prototype HSR trainsets each for Amtrak and California. Before issuing a "Notice To Proceed" to any selected supplier, Amtrak and California each must certify and provide support to FRA that its selected supplier still has not established domestic manufacturing facilities capable of assembling the prototypes and delivering them within a reasonable time. All components used in the prototypes must still be domestically manufactured or separate waivers for components requested and granted before assembly of the prototypes can commence.
FRA's current Buy America requirement for rolling stock, not limited to HSR equipment, requires domestic final assembly of the trainsets and that all of the components be manufactured in the U.S. Numerous global suppliers, including but not limited to the likes of Bombardier, CAF, Kawasaki, Siemens, and Sumitomo, have established and/or recently expanded their U.S. manufacturing presence to comply with the requirement.
"(The) FRA believes a waiver is appropriate ... because domestically produced HSR trainsets meeting the specific technical, design, and schedule needs of Amtrak and the Authority are not currently available in the U.S.," FRA said in a notice. "There is no assembly or testing facility for HSR trainsets operating at speeds greater than 160 mph in the U.S. Moreover, FRA estimates that it could take HSR trainset manufacturers a minimum of one-and-a-half to two years to establish the required facilities to support a domestic HSR trainset assembly capability."