First segment of high-speed rail hits another snag

First segment of high-speed rail hits another snag

SACRAMENTO — It was supposed to be the easiest section of the high-speed rail project: a 119-mile stretch in the Central Valley that would serve as the testing ground for the high-speed trains before tracks are expanded south to Los Angeles and north to San Francisco.

On Wednesday, the High-Speed Rail Authority informed the Obama administration, in a contract amendment, that it expects the Central Valley track to be complete by 2022 instead of 2018 as originally projected.

The High-Speed Rail Authority dismissed the notion that there has been a new delay in the project, saying the grant contract had not been amended since 2012 to reflect new timelines.

[...] the Caltrain system on the Peninsula would be completely electrified and, using those tracks, the rail would be immediately able to connect to San Francisco, according to the authority’s business plan.

The first leg of tracks in the Central Valley needs to be completed so that the authority can start testing trains and a signaling system, which Alley said will be done as the rail builds into the Bay Area.

The contract amendment signed Wednesday also streamlines payments the rail authority can make to use federal dollars to buy land and homes to make way for the trains.

“The people who are calling this a delay are opponents of this project who will utilize something positive like this amendment because they are not advocates of high-speed rail,” Alley said.

Jessica Peters, a principal fiscal and policy analyst with the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, said the 2022 completion date for finishing the Central Valley segment is “not unexpected, but new.”

Gov. Jerry Brown remains a major supporter of the project, saying Wednesday at a California Chamber of Commerce event that he’s looking forward to sitting in the rail car with a bourbon and rocks, looking at my iPhone.