CA High-Speed Rail set big goals for 2026. What to watch in Fresno, Central Valley

After dismissing its relationship with the federal government at the close of 2025, the California High-Speed Rail Authority is coming into the new year with a to-do list and plan that could connect the Fresno-Madera area to Gilroy before the train reaches Merced.

Despite losing $4 billion of its unspent federal money last year, the rail authority also scored a big win as California’s Legislature promised the project $20 billion over the next 20 years.

In 2026, the agency will look to use that state guarantee to land a private-sector partnership in which investors advance their own money to speed up the project’s construction.

But what that deal looks like could depend on whether investors are allowed to focus on more profitable segments outside the initial Central Valley line required by state law. How much the train’s construction accelerates in the future could depend on how much the Legislature is willing to help clear jurisdictional problems that have historically slowed the project.

So, this year the rail authority could ask the Legislature to nix the Central Valley-focus rule and pass laws that help it more quickly resolve local land-use conflicts. The agency is also scheduled to begin laying the project’s first tracks in the Central Valley this year.

But the rail authority has signaled it will be moving forward without the help of the federal government — at least as long as Republicans are in power.

“We also see this moment as a new opportunity,” the agency said in a statement. “Moving forward without the Trump administration’s involvement allows the Authority to pursue proven global best practices used successfully by modern high-speed rail systems around the world.”

The project has grown controversial since California voters in 2008 approved $9.95 billion in bonds for a train that would connect the state’s major metro areas at a total cost of about $45 billion. Today, after years of delays and cost increases, the focus is first on completing a 171-mile Merced-to-Bakersfield segment that the rail authority estimates will cost at least $36.75 billion alone.

But if things go according to the rail authority’s plans, the agency says it could have high-speed trains carrying passengers in the Central Valley one year ahead of the segment’s previous 2033 deadline.

Continued tension with the Trump administration?

California sued the federal government after it pulled $4 billion of the project’s federal money last July on the grounds that it had “no viable path” to completing a Central Valley line by 2033. But the state withdrew its lawsuit last month — even after a federal judge denied the Trump administration’s request to have the suit dismissed.

The rail authority said in a statement to The Bee that the Trump administration “is not a reliable, constructive, or trustworthy partner” and noted the federal government has signaled all work on the California project “remains ‘at risk’ and may not receive funding.” (U.S. Secretary Sean Duffy in July, while announcing the $4 billion rescission, directed the review of other grants to the project for more potential rescissions.)

“The State has opted to move forward without the Trump administration,” the agency said. “We regret that they will not share in California’s success.”

In its own statement, the U.S. Department of Transportation reiterated that its 2025 investigation “exposed” California’s inability to deliver high-speed rail “on time or on budget.” But the department did not respond to specific questions about whether it plans to take further action against the project in 2026.

Private sector partnership expected by summer 2026

The rail authority in December also officially launched its prequalification process for bringing private investors into the project by this upcoming summer.

The announcement came after a year of talks with industry representatives who the agency said required a strong financial backing from the state before they could decide to invest in the project.

California’s Legislature voted to commit $1 billion per year to high-speed rail through 2045 from the state’s Cap-and-Trade program at the end of its session in August, opening the door for investors.

Rail authority CEO Ian Choudri says investors will spend their own money to design, build and operate train segments for a period of time as they are repaid through a combination of public dollars and revenues generated by commercialization of the train’s right-of-way.

“The beauty of it is the burden of continuing to ask for funding from the state taxpayers is reduced,” he told The Bee in November.

Removal of Central Valley focus could connect Fresno-Madera to Gilroy

The investors Choudri is hoping to land will likely want to build high-speed rail routes expected to turn a profit instead of solely focus on the required 171-mile Merced-to-Bakersfield segment, which is expected to operate at a loss.

To do that, the rail authority will have to persuade California’s Legislature to change SB 198, a 2022 law that officially made Merced-to-Bakersfield the train’s initial segment and capped spending outside that focus at $500 million.

Choudri said investors may want to build a segment that extends from Madera to Gilroy, where the electrified Caltrain system’s tracks will be able to carry high-speed rail passengers to San Francisco.

The rail authority first pitched the idea in an August report that included various alternative scenarios that are expected to turn a profit but exclude a Merced station from the initial route. State Sen. Anna Caballero and Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, both democrats, told The Bee at the time that they would oppose any legislation that would delay construction toward Merced station.

But Choudri confirmed to The Bee in November that he will be asking lawmakers to make changes to the law, saying “SB 198 stands right in the way” of the innovation private investors are offering the project.

In its August report, the rail authority also pitched various other actions the Legislature could take to help the project move forward faster and with fewer costs.

The rail authority failed to get a law passed last year that would have streamlined its local permitting and the removal of utilities from its right of way. But State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, told Calmatters he planned to reintroduce similar legislation this year.

The rail authority has also floated a state sales tax exemption and has said it wants the state to appoint special courts or judges to handle its eminent domain cases — which have been a main cause of the project’s slow movement in the past.

“We need all of it,” Choudri previously told The Bee about the future legislative requests.

CA High-Speed Rail has said it will lay tracks in 2026

Throughout 2025, Choudri said the rail authority will lay the project’s first tracks in the Central Valley in 2026.

He first made an announcement during a visit to Fresno last April. The rail authority in August began looking for manufacturers who can provide $507.1 million-worth of materials — including rail, steel poles, ballast and more — needed to lay tracks on 119 miles between Madera and Shafter.

In late November, the agency issued a $3.5 billion request for proposals from contractors who will perform the track construction beginning this year. The rail authority’s August report included a timeline that shows its track and systems constructions will begin on the 119-mile stretch this year.

The agency has built a railhead facility in Kern County where construction materials will be stored.

“The Authority is positioned to move rapidly into systems installation along the 119-mile corridor once the Track and Systems Contract is awarded,” the agency said in November.

This story was originally published January 7, 2026 at 6:30 AM with the headline "CA High-Speed Rail set big goals for 2026. What to watch in Fresno, Central Valley."

Erik Galicia

The Fresno Bee

Erik is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, where he helped launch an effort to better meet the news needs of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Before that, he served as editor-in-chief of his community college student newspaper, Riverside City College Viewpoints, where he covered the impacts of the Salton Sea’s decline on its adjacent farm worker communities in the Southern California desert. Erik’s work is supported through the California Local News Fellowship program.