Construction continues Wednesday, March 30, 2022 on pillars for High Speed Rail in Hanford just north of Highway 198.
Sacramento, California – California has cracked open the vault on its most ambitious public-works saga yet, firing the starting gun on a $3.5 billion bidding war to build the first true high-speed rail tracks in American history. After years of courtroom battles, political storms, and endless skeptics calling the project a pipe dream, the High-Speed Rail Authority is finally inviting companies to fight for a piece of the empire.
The new Track and Systems Construction Contract—TSCC for short—is the biggest step the project has taken in more than a decade. The authority wants builders for a 119-mile stretch slicing through the Central Valley, plus the future legs reaching Merced and Bakersfield. Nine massive work packages are up for grabs, covering everything from electrification to train control to the safety systems that will one day help bullet trains rip across the state at 220 mph.
The agency is pitching it as a historic milestone, “the first true high-speed rail track and systems ever built in the United States”—a line meant as much for the critics as for the construction crews.
California’s bullet train saga began when voters approved the idea back in 2008. Since then, the project has stumbled through funding droughts, environmental hurdles, shifting political winds, and the usual California chorus predicting financial doom. But this latest contract signals something different: momentum.
Track installation has already wrapped at the 150-acre railhead facility in Kern County—the logistics heart pumping out material to job sites. More than 70 miles of guideway and nearly 60 major structures are complete, and more than 16,100 workers have cycled through construction sites since ground first broke.
Every day, up to 1,700 workers show up, move dirt, lay concrete, and inch California closer to a future where a trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles doesn’t require a plane, a freeway, or a day’s worth of patience.
CEO Ian Choudri framed the new bid process as a turning point. “Building faster, smarter, and more economically” is the new doctrine, he said—a nod to critics who’ve blasted the project’s spiraling costs and slow rollout. The agency says moving into materials pre-purchases and system-by-system construction will accelerate the timeline and tighten the budget.
Companies chasing the contract will gather at a Sacramento prebid conference on December 19, with full proposals due by March 2, 2026. It’s just the latest gauntlet thrown as California attempts to build a 494-mile high-speed spine connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles and Anaheim—463 miles of which are already environmentally cleared.
After years of doubt, delays, and political theater, the state is signaling it’s done talking about the train. It’s ready to build it.
