10 years ago, every major politician in California trotted down to Fresno to break ground on the nations’s first high-speed rail project. The ambitions for Fresno have been large. A revitalized downtown, connected in just an hour to the Silicon Valley. Tech companies relocating to Fresno. Building an ag-tech hub in Fresno and Merced. Tens of thousands of construction jobs, paving the way to even more middle and higher-wage permanent jobs.
At that time, the first segment, connecting Merced to Burbank, was supposed to open in 2022. A decade later, officials now hope the Merced to Bakersfield segment will open by 2033.
There’s been some progress: initial track work has been laid in Kern County earlier this year, 171 miles are under construction, and state officials say nearly 15,000 construction jobs have been created. Fresno has been able to leverage the future rail project to attract hundreds of millions in grants for infrastructure in downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods.
But as the Trump administration announced last week that they’re going to audit the project, even some more stalwart supporters of the project are wondering whether the project will get completed with the original vision of connecting the Valley to the state’s major economic and population centers.
Fresnoland wants to dive into more reporting and community conversations to hear what our readers want to know about the project and what its future should hold for Fresno. Share your thoughts with us below!
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