Senator Dave Cortese Plans to Introduce Legislation To Secure Tried-and-True Public-Private Funding for the High Speed Rail Project
SACRAMENTO – On the first day of the 2025 California Legislative session, California State Senator Dave Cortese, chair of the California Senate Transportation Committee, said he will soon introduce a bill to address the funding uncertainties swirling around the High Speed Rail Project by securing private-public partnerships to pay for a project transporting Californians into the future.
“As the State Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, I am unwilling to let the uncertain funding connected to the renewal of state cap-and-trade and the challenges with the Trump Administration go unaddressed. The way to do this is through tried-and-true public-private partnerships that have historically funded transportation projects in every major city throughout the state of California,” said state Senator Dave Cortese (D-Silicon Valley). “We need to get back to the basics to fund the statewide construction of High Speed Rail. It is our future.”
The time-tested equation of public-private funding partnerships is what makes big infrastructure projects happen in California and that equation will be key to completing the High Speed Rail project, Cortese added.
Anytime there is a statewide project of this magnitude, Cortese said, the critics come out of the woodwork about financing. It happened to the late Governor Pat Brown who made massive investments in the state's successful universities, freeways and water systems.
California is building the nation’s first 220-mph electrified high-speed rail system powered by 100% renewable energy. Today the High Speed Rail Authority is releasing its annual Sustainability Report as a commitment to transparency and accountability. The report details the cumulative and annual progress the high-speed rail project has made on its social, economic and environmental goals in the last year as it builds one of the most significant, greenest public infrastructure projects in the nation.
Background:
The benefits of the High Speed Rail building project include:
- 3,000 future jobs;
- 14,096 construction jobs dispatched
- 847 small businesses engaged;
- $6.6 billion investment in disadvantaged communities;
- 142 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions to be avoided during system operation;
- 570,840 pounds of criteria air pollutants already avoided through use of clean construction vehicles;
- 27,707 metric tons of carbon already sequestered and avoided through habitat and conservation;
- Maintaining a net-positive balance on carbon-neutral construction.
The California High-Speed Rail system will connect the following cities:
Phase 1: San Francisco to Los Angeles, with a stop in Anaheim
Phase 2: Sacramento to San Diego, with stops in the Inland Empire
Total system: 800 miles long, with up to 24 stations
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