Updates
April 18, 2026: "getting ready to lay track" for the 119-mile Merced-to-Bakersfield (Central Valley) segment.
The state hopes to have this segment operational between 2030 - 2033, or in other words, by 2033 -- that's seven years from now. Laying 119 miles of railroad track on flat land with no major obstructions can take anywhere from a few months to over a year, depending on whether the timeline includes only the physical laying of track or the entire project, including surveying, permitting, and grading. My understanding is that all the preparation work has begun.
Original Post
Without this project, neither California nor Governor Newsom have any marketing photo ops.
Definition of a railhead: simply a staging area for material. It may or may not have any rail. In this case, there is yet no rail laid for the actual project.
In early February, 2026, Governor Newsom announced a major milestone for the California high-speed rail project, a railhead in Kern County, to begin staging material to complete a 119-mile segment of the "bullet train" route through the "central valley," from Merced to Bakersfield, combined population, 500,000.
Governor Newsom says the projects hopes to be a fully operational high-speed rail segment by 2033.
Current cost estimates for the rail from "Los Angeles" to "San Francisco" is $135 billion; original estimates, $33 billion, made in 2008. There are no time-of-completion estimates for the entire "LA-to-SF" project," but it now well accepted it will be well beyond 2040, assuming it is even completed.
