California high-speed rail approves track contract, work nears launch
California approved a $3.5 billion track contract, pushing rail closer to launch in the Central Valley. San Francisco still waits for a real Bay Area link.
A $3.5 billion track-and-systems contract moved California high-speed rail from civil construction toward the point where it can start behaving like a railroad, but the work is still centered far from San Francisco. The California High-Speed Rail Authority board approved the deal on June 1, selecting Kiewit, Stacy Witbeck and Herzog to install track, overhead contact systems, train control, communications and testing and safety certification across 119 miles of guideway in the Central Valley.
For Bay Area riders and taxpayers, the immediate payoff remains limited. The approved work covers the route already built in the Central Valley and reaches into the future Merced and Bakersfield extensions, not into downtown San Francisco. The authority said the system is designed for speeds up to 220 mph, and officials said tracklaying could begin later in 2026 as each section clears civil construction. The contract is divided into nine packages, with phased notices to proceed so crews can move section by section.
The authority also said its 150-acre southern railhead in Kern County is complete and ready to serve as the freight and logistics hub for rail deliveries and other long-lead materials. The procurement that produced the contract was launched in November 2025, and the authority said it had already directly purchased rail, concrete ties and ballast ahead of installation.
The milestone comes after years of political and financial scrutiny. Voters approved the project in 2008 with a plan that called for completion by 2020, yet the system remains unfinished after roughly $15 billion in spending. Federal officials withdrew about $4 billion in grants in 2025, and the state later ended its legal fight over that funding. The project’s supporters argue the new contract marks the point where the line begins to shift from a construction site into a working transportation system. Critics say it is another expensive step on a project that has repeatedly slipped past its promises.
The same board meeting also installed Stephen Kawa, a former longtime aide to Gov. Gavin Newsom, as chair and adopted the authority’s 2026 business plan. That plan still frames the project around linking communities such as Gilroy, Merced, Fresno, Bakersfield and Palmdale to larger job centers and innovation hubs. For San Francisco, the next accountability test is whether those Central Valley contracts can eventually translate into a usable Bay Area connection, or whether the state is still funding the front end of a rail line that has yet to reach the people who approved it nearly two decades ago.
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