California High-Speed Rail Authority officials hit Highway 99 south to Merced on Friday after a recent report left local leaders feeling like they had no ticket to ride.
The authority sent a team of staff to meet with leaders of the City of Merced and Merced County in the aftermath of an Aug. 22 Supplemental Project Report that suggested alternative routes to the bullet train’s initial 171-mile operating segment from Bakersfield to Merced.
Some of those routes included removing Merced from that initial segment and instead going from Bakersfield or Palmdale in the south, to Madera and then Gilroy, with the goal of maximizing profits once the train is operational.
That led Merced officials to tell the High-Speed Rail Authority board on Aug. 28 they were “blindsided” with no advance notice of the report’s release – finding out about it only from media reports.
Merced City Council members Shane Smith and Darin DuPont also had pointed words for the authority at the council’s Monday meeting, saying the city has invested significant resources in planning for the proposed downtown station – based on longstanding promises from the authority.
Smith went as far as saying there should be “consequences” if the authority fails to live up to those promises. “If this multi-billion dollar investment were to disappear, I guarantee you we will feel the impacts of that,” Smith said during Monday’s meeting.
What happened inside Friday’s meetings?
Just a few days after Smith and DuPont made those comments, on Friday staff from the High Speed Rail Authority sat down for the closed door meeting with City of Merced leaders.
The meeting, which happened inside the third floor conference room at city hall, included Mayor Matt Serratto, Mayor Pro Tem Sarah Boyle and Councilmember Smith representing the city’s transportation subcommittee, along with City Manager Scott McBride, Deputy City Manager Frank Quintero and Economic Development Associate Mandy Williams.
The High Speed Rail Authority was represented by its Chief of Staff Mark Tollefson, Statewide Regional Director Basem Muallem, Chief of External Affairs Peter Whippy and Diana Gomez, senior project director/vice president for HNTB.
Two members of a state lobbying group representing Merced were also in the meeting.
Media were not invited. Serratto, Smith and McBride provided their summary of the gathering immediately afterward.
Serratto told The Merced FOCUS that city officials expressed their frustration with the lack of communication with the authority, particularly the failure to consult with city officials before the report’s release.
“Both sides emphasized the need for good communication. Both sides agreed on that,” Serratto said. “We talked about the longstanding relationship between Merced and the High-Speed Rail Authority. Everybody rallied around the idea that we need to communicate in a positive way and be good partners.”
Smith said he asked many questions of the authority, including whether Merced is going to continue being a partner with the state agency, given the recent issues associated with the report.
“What I took away from the meeting (was) there’s pretty broad and strong recommitment to partnership. I think that the high-speed rail team acknowledged the lack of communication before their study was issued, and they acknowledged that was a mistake, so that was good to hear,” Smith said.
“I think the city and the council have a lot of work to do to make sure that Merced is not just on the high-speed rail map going forward, but that we’re still the multi-modal station link between three different rail lines and the airport. And that’s some work that we’re gonna have to do here pretty quickly.”
The FOCUS was unable to catch up with Tollefson and the authority team during their visit to Merced. When they arrived at the Merced Civic Center on Friday, they came through a side door and avoided protesters gathered at the main entrance.
“I hear they had a productive dialogue and we appreciated meeting with regional and local partners,” Micah Flores, the authority’s public information officer, said in a text message to The Merced FOCUS.
Immediately after the Merced Civic Center meeting, the authority team went to the Merced County Administration Building, where they met with Board of Supervisors Chair Josh Pedrozo, County Executive Officer Mark Hendrickson, Community and Economic Development Director Mark Mimms and Assistant Director of Public Works Lindsey Johnson.
Pedrozo said he was blunt with the authority team, saying their level of communication with Merced County has been “terrible.”
“I flat out said it to them and that has been my message the whole time,” Pedrozo said.
Pedrozo said he and other county officials have been trying “really hard” to ensure the lines of communication are open with the High-Speed Rail Authority. Pedrozo said he and county officials even met with the authority earlier this year, but they never mentioned anything about working on a report that considered removing Merced from the initial operating segment.
Pedrozo said the report and the suggestion to bypass Merced is “another example of them using the Central Valley as a flyover and not recognizing the impact that we have here and that’s really frustrating.”
When asked whether he believes the High-Speed Rail Authority will follow through on their pledge for better communication, Pedrozo replied “No, I do not. We have just been told that too many times to really put faith in it.”
While they were in town Friday, authority representatives also met with Stacie Guzman, executive director of Merced County Association of Governments (MCAG).
Guzman had called in to the authority board meeting last month, saying she was disappointed about the suggestion to not include Merced on the initial operating segment.
Guzman on Friday described her talks with the authority as productive, saying she hopes to move forward as partners on the existing Bakersfield to Merced plan, as required under state law.
Plans already in motion for Merced high-speed rail station
Regardless of the report, the plans for a Merced high-speed rail station are mandated under state law – unless the Legislature decides otherwise.
California voters passed Proposition 1A in 2008 to provide $9.9 billion in general obligation bonds for the project, although the costs have since skyrocketed. Today, just building the 171-mile initial operating segment from Merced to Bakersfield is estimated to cost $36.75 billion, with $8.59 billion still needed to make it happen.
Although work on the initial Merced to Bakersfield route has been ongoing for years, construction has been limited to three contracts running from just north of Madera to the Kern County community of Shafter – a span of 119 miles.
Even if the Merced to Bakersfield segment is built, the report suggests it would lose money in operating costs over the course of 40 years – to the tune of $3.8 billion.
The report suggests while other route alternatives may be more expensive to build, they would ultimately be profitable. For example, building the route from Palmdale in the south to Gilroy via Madera, bypassing Merced, would cost $87.12 billion, while bringing in an operating profit of $98.1 billion over 40 years.
Still, supporters of high-speed rail in Merced point to multiple reasons why having a station makes sense. Earlier this year the California Department of Finance ranked Merced as one of fastest-growing cities of its size in California.
That growth is only expected to continue with the ever-expanding student population at UC Merced. The relatively close proximity to the massively popular Yosemite National Park as a tourist destination is also commonly cited as a plus to the Merced station.
It’s also no secret a high-speed rail station would be a massive, multi-million dollar shot in the arm for investment in Merced’s downtown, which has experienced a renovation renaissance in recent years.
McBride, Merced’s city manager, says the city has planned accordingly and has invested countless time and resources to plan for the downtown station, which would be bordered by 15th and 16th Streets and O and R streets. The station would be an important hub connecting high-speed rail with the Altamont Corridor Express and Amtrak – an endeavor commonly referred to as MITC (Merced Intermodal Track Connection Project).
With $500,000 funding from the state, Merced has already begun working on a downtown station area plan, which includes a citizens advisory group that’s started meeting.
Plus, the city’s ongoing general plan revise is being studied under the assumption that the downtown high-speed rail plan will be built in Merced, given that’s been the direction from the state for years. Also, businesses in the right of way of the proposed stations have been making plans to relocate.
“So right now, one of the assumptions is there’s (going to be) a high speed rail station that connects with ACE and Amtrak,” Smith said. “So we’re going to be designing the future of our community based upon that, with that assumption smack dab in the middle (of downtown), right? If that’s not the case, we have to change direction.”
City Hall meeting attracted a small protest, onlookers
News of Friday’s closed-door meetings wasn’t released to the public, but buzz of it spread relatively quickly on email among a group of Merced community leaders and boosters.
UC Merced Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz made a brief appearance outside city hall, though he was not a part of the meetings with the city or county.
Steve Tietjen, superintendent of schools for Merced County Office of Education, was another local leader who was outside city hall, curious about the scheduled meetings between the authority and city.
Tietjen said he came to city hall because he’s concerned about the authority “falling through” on its previous commitments to Merced.
“They have changed schedules many times in my experience over the last 15 years, and it’s time that they manage their money and the organization effectively and get the rail started and get the station built here in Merced.” Tietjen said.
“The recent (high-speed rail) report seemed to ignore 20 years of work (in Merced). And I was more than upset by it, I was pretty much outraged by the fact that they would ignore the previous promises and the previous work done in our community.”
Annissa Fragoso and Ernie Ochoa were among a handful of protesters in support of a Merced high-speed rail station who showed up at city hall Friday.
Fragoso, who is president of the Merced County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said she has participated in numerous focus groups and community meetings for high-speed rail over the years.
She added her organization has provided numerous letters of support for the project, even predating her presidency (she has led the organization for five years).
“All this talk about the economic development, the jobs, the prototype of what the raised platform is going to be, supporting Amtrak, ACE and the connecting trains – all of that is energy the community has put into this wonderful idea of high-speed rail, (only) for it to (now) be pulled out like a rug from underneath us,” she said.
Fragoso said if the state doesn’t live up to its promises to include Merced on the initial operating segment, the city should consider a lawsuit to force the authority into upholding its pledge.
Ochoa, who is a longtime Merced resident and local Realtor, said he supports the station in Merced because it would be a game changer for the economy and local development.
He also personally knows many business owners along 16th Street who have already made plans to relocate, as they were informed long ago about the advent of the downtown station.
He said the potential of the state switching gears and taking Merced off that initial segment is creating added stress and expense. “They have invested thousands and thousands – if not even millions – of dollars to plan moving their business to another site here in Merced,” Ochoa explained.
No shortage of hurdles
Even if Merced officials are successful in keeping the city on the high-speed rail map, the authority must still navigate a treacherous minefield of bureaucracy and red tape – not to mention a Trump administration that’s nothing less than hostile to the project.
The authority and federal government are currently in court over $4 billion in funds the Trump administration terminated earlier this year.
Outside of that, the state will have to get creative to keep mainlining funds, in order to stay on track. As reported by CalMatters’ Yousef Baig, one of the most critical funding items in front of the Legislature is Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 15-year cap and trade extension.
The program allows polluters to pay for emissions through a market system of credits. That’s about $1 billion a year for California high-speed rail, and Newsom’s proposal would help sustain it until 2045.
Authority CEO Ian Chourdri, who has been on the job for about a year, also has eyes on attracting private investors – and there has been a lot of talk about how important those investors will be with eventually achieving the project’s long-term goal of connecting Los Angeles with San Francisco.
That conversation has already begun to include players like Brightline West, a proposed high-speed rail line that would connect Las Vegas to Los Angeles. The supporting cast also includes Caltrain, which would potentially carry passengers from the Gilroy high-speed rail station to the Bay Area, and Metrolink, which would connect with high speed rail to destinations in Southern California.
Regardless of all of those moving parts, Merced leaders say the city and region needs to be kept in the conversation.
Many Merced leaders have said one of the issues has been that as the authority’s brass has changed hands, the newer leaders aren’t always as informed about the agreements their predecessors made to the Valley.
Serratto says he’s hoping that will change, particularly after Friday’s meetings.
“It’s a new guard (at high-speed rail). It’s a new leadership. And they’re trying to do their best, I think, but obviously, being new, (they’re) not privy to everything that’s gone on the last decade plus,” Serratto said.
“But I think this meeting was a very good step in establishing that relationship and giving them a good glimpse into a lot of that history, and just showing everything we’ve been doing. That was our big point, too, is we’re way down the line of this. We’ve been working on this for a long time.”