Dear State Leaders:

As millions more people call California home in the coming years, high-speed rail will keep us connected with less traffic, air pollution, and expensive freeway widening.

Because California has made tremendous progress on America’s largest infrastructure project, we are closer than ever to clean, rapid transit across the state.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority has electrified the rail corridor from San Francisco to San Jose, prepared over 100 miles in the Central Valley for track installation, increased rail capacity and safety in Los Angeles, and secured the environmental approvals needed for this megaproject.

The work that remains is relatively straightforward from an engineering perspective. But the hardest hurdles are political.

We urge you to remove these hurdles that are delaying the project:

Require PG&E and other utilities to quickly collaborate with the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CAHSR) so that utility equipment that impedes the high-speed rail can be relocated soon. While nearly 2,000 utility conflicts have been resolved, the project faces hundreds more. Each conflict has the ability to delay the project by several years.

Remove barriers to investment so public-private partnerships can fund work on the next steps of the project. Institutional investors are lining up to help fund key parts of the high-speed rail project. However, current law effectively blocks CAHSR from partnering with these investors on work that connects the Central Valley to the Bay Area and Los Angeles until after the corridor from Merced to Bakersfield is complete. So much progress has been made in the Central Valley. Now we urgently need CAHSR to be able to start work on other key infrastructure components, such as rail tunnels connecting the Central Valley with Southern California and the Bay Area.

Require Caltrans and local highway authorities to provide support in the designing, building, and funding of upgrades to roads related to the high-speed rail project. CAHSR has built over 50 new highway and road segments for Caltrans and local highway authorities, which will ensure drivers can get where they're going without crossing the path of trains. CAHSR has been forced to shoulder the entirety of the design and construction costs of these road projects. State and local road agencies should do their part to build the road elements and free up the High-Speed Rail Authority to focus on building high-speed rail.

The California high-speed rail project has already improved the lives of millions of Californians by:

Electrifying the Caltrain corridor from San Francisco to San Jose, leading to record ridership growth and customer satisfaction

Provided an economic boon to the Central Valley, creating over 19,000 jobs while making traffic flow smoother and safer

Saved Los Angeles Metro riders 20-30 minutes on cross-county trips via the Regional Connector

Built 119 miles of right of way, with track laying set to start soon
Completed environmental review from San Francisco to Los Angeles

California’s high-speed rail is the largest megaproject underway in the United States, but the work that remains is relatively straightforward from an engineering perspective. Fundamentally, the project’s speed is up to you. The hardest hurdles are political.

Please take action to speed up the project: make PG&E and highway authorities work with high-speed rail, and allow outside investors to help fund key elements of the project to move the Bay Area and Southern California connections forward.

When the initial section of the project is complete in a few short years, high-speed rail service will serve millions of Californians in the Central Valley and beyond, connecting with Amtrak and local transit. When the full service connecting the Bay and Southern California begins – our state will be transformed.

Let’s make California a more connected, affordable, and vibrant place – and show the world what we can do.

Sincerely,