Planning continues for Merced high-speed rail station. When could construction begin?
Consultants for the California High-Speed Rail Authority are continuing to work up plans for four bullet-train stations throughout the San Joaquin Valley — including in downtown Merced.
Residents in Merced got a look earlier this year at preliminary plans for the passenger station that is slated to be built between 15th Street and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks between O and R streets. That’s the site for which Merced city leaders lobbied after earlier plans approved by the state rail agency proposed for the station to be built along the UPRR tracks between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and G Street.
But it’s likely to be another year and a half before plans for the Merced station — as well as stations in Fresno, Hanford and Bakersfield — reach a construction-ready stage.
That’s the expectation expressed earlier this year by Margaret Cederoth, director of planning and sustainability for the California High-Speed Rail Authority. Cederoth said construction of the stations, for which a contractor has yet to be chosen, could hopefully commence in 2027.
The rail agency is striving to complete construction of its railway, including tracks, overhead power lines and signaling systems, in time to begin testing electrified trains in about 2028 on its first operational segment of the rail line between downtown Merced and downtown Bakersfield.
High-speed rail station in Merced
The rail authority hopes to be able to begin carrying passengers on the route sometime between 2030 and 2033.
Merced’s high-speed rail station will feature viaducts for elevated tracks and boarding platforms, with entry plazas and concourses at ground level. It will also be designed as a hub for multiple passenger train services: high-speed rail, the existing Amtrak San Joaquins service, and a future southern terminus for the Altamont Corridor Express, or ACE Rail commuter trains that currently connect Stockton to San Jose.
Renderings from the rail authority indicate that the multi-service station would straddle the future ACE Rail tracks and the existing Union Pacific freight tracks, with a walkway carrying pedestrians from the 16th Street side of the station over those tracks to ground-level platforms for the Amtrak San Joaquins and the elevated platforms for high-speed trains.
While city leaders have expressed excitement for the economic opportunities that the station is expected to bring to downtown Merced, there is consternation over the potential displacement of two longtime community-service facilities nearby because of the rail project: the McCombs Youth Center (where the Boys & Girls Club of Merced County runs programs) and the Merced Senior Community Center. Both operate out of city-owned buildings on 15th Street, south of the station site — and both have been told they need to move in 2026 to make way for construction of the rail line.
It’s not certain whether the relocations would be temporary or permanent, city officials said earlier this year.
California bullet rain route: Merced, Fresno, Hanford and Bakersfield
An initial $35.3 million contract for station planning and design was awarded in the fall of 2023 to a joint venture comprised of two London-based multinational companies: Foster + Partners, an architectural firm, and engineering consulting firm Arup. It calls for the team to analyze the sites, acquire the needed property, and develop preliminary designs and configurations for the stations.
The rail authority has an option to have the same Foster/Arup team develop final construction-ready plans and support construction and commissioning of the stations for initial passenger operations. That second phase of design is estimated to cost about $36 million.
A stop in Madera that will serve both high-speed rail and the Amtrak San Joaquin trains is being planned under a different process by the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority, the agency that oversees the Amtrak service in the San Joaquin Valley.
The 171-mile route from Merced through Fresno and Hanford to Bakersfield is planned to be the first operational segment for high-speed trains. The latest estimates of construction costs for the Valley route between Merced and Bakersfield range from $32.1 billion to $35.3 billion.
This story was originally published December 23, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
