It appears that along with starting construction work next fall in the rural Joaquin Valley, major upgrades to conventional lines in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas would also start simultaneously. These upgrades will lead to the amalgamation of the Bay Area Caltrain systems and Southern California Metrolink into the 500-mile high-speed line from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

 

The theory being propounded now is that accelerating construction by using the present right-of-way will reduce future escalation of costs and the state will be able to decrease the project cost from the current mind-boggling estimate of $98.5 billion, which is three times what was told to voters when the project was approved in 2008. Only about $13 billion in financing has been identified as yet. Gov. Jerry Brown, who has been championing the cause of the bullet train, gave indications of the proposed changes on January 29. He called the nearly $100 billion tag “silly” and hinted that the project can be done “a lot cheaper".