California’s ongoing “zombie program” of high-speed rail is considering skipping a city that has been planning for a station for years.
Merced, a city with nearly 100,000 residents, is not happy. Mayor Matthew Seratto says the people have been planning for the potential boost to the city for a long time and now their dreams are being quashed.
“It’s a big impact. I mean, we’ve had a lot of been a lot of expectation, a lot of planning, a lot of people have bought property intending to develop it. We have a whole area around that, the station, which, you know, is ripe for transit-oriented development as well and for a lot of economic development. So, you know, could really have a significant negative impact if it doesn’t, you know, if it doesn’t arrive,” Serratto said.
According to Your Central Valley:
A new report released by the California High Speed Rail Authority gives new insight into the profitability of the current project and what routes the project could take first.
Some of the new proposals include the possibility of not bringing the rail to the City of Merced.
“I think we were a little surprised, taken a little off guard by it,” Merced Mayor Matthew Serratto said.
He said over the past few years, they’ve had a close working relationship with high-speed rail officials, making some of the proposals included in Friday’s report that much more of a shock.
The report looks at a few different options, starting with the current Merced to Bakersfield plan. In that section of the report, the HSRA said, “This specific scenario would not achieve a positive profitable outcome.”
It then goes on to show other options, including a few where, instead of going to Merced with high-speed rail, they connect Madera to Gilroy. Those scenarios offer service to Merced with regional railways.
Billions have already been wasted on the project, which many are saying has been a government money-laundering scheme for decades.
