Fed up with CA High-Speed Rail, Central Valley city says train can just ‘go around’

Frustrated by a proposed change that would keep high-speed rail running through Shafter at ground-level, the town’s leaders voted to reject the new plan with the mayor saying he’d rather see the train just “go around the city” than rip up local streets to create a series of underpasses and overpasses.

The sentiment was on display at a lengthy Shafter City Council meeting last week, when residents and business owners said they were worried about construction hurting small businesses and disrupting school routes, among other concerns.

“The people have spoken,” Councilmember Gilbert Alvarado said after public comment ended. “I see a lot of devastation.”

The rail authority asked the Shafter council to authorize a redesign that it says would cut costs and take two years off construction in the Kern County town.

Under the proposed changes, local streets in the city’s core would be reconfigured as underpasses and overpasses to make way for ground-level tracks. The current design from an existing 2018 agreement would keep most streets at-grade and instead build elevated tracks bound by massive support walls 35 feet high — a plan that has doubled in cost in the past 7 years, according an October report from the California High-Speed Rail Authority

Rail authority CEO Ian Choudri told The Fresno Bee on Wednesday his team’s intent is to make the project faster and less disruptive for cities, which includes removing the massive retaining walls that would divide Shafter and take longer to build.

“If somebody says, ‘No, I want the Great Wall of China in my town, divide me,’ my team is going to say, ‘OK, if that’s what you want, we will be in your town for a longer period of time,’” Choudri said.

The proposal marks the second time in recent months that the rail authority has prompted protest from a Central Valley city by pitching changes to plans made years ago. An uproar in Merced followed an August rail authority report that pitched scenarios that postpone building toward that city until after construction toward the Bay Area, where the state expects the project will be able to turn a profit.

The rail authority’s new ideas come amid an effort to create a roadmap for a financially viable future while removing some of the costs and delays that have historically slowed the project. It’s aiming to complete the initial Merced-to-Bakersfield stretch at a cost of $36.75 billion and begin service operations by 2032, but obstacles remain that could keep the rail authority from staying on that timeline.

“The city of Shafter rejected a proposal that would substantially reduce community impacts ... and significantly lower costs,” the agency said in a statement to The Bee. “The Authority will continue work with the city and evaluate options to responsibly deliver high-speed rail in a way that balances local interests with the needs of the entire state.”

Shafter proposal stems from ‘lessons learned’ in Fresno

Diana Gomez, a project director with high-speed rail design contractor HNTB, told the Shafter council that the proposed changes stemmed from “lessons learned” during construction in Fresno, Madera and Kings counties.

“As we’re moving forward into these other areas, we’re really trying to figure out how we can minimize the construction,” she said.

Along with elevated high-speed rail tracks, the 2018 settlement agreement requires the existing Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) freight tracks to be lifted. Both tracks would run alongside each other atop a space filled with dirt and bound by the massive walls that would run about 6 miles.

Rail authority staff told the Shafter council that eliminating the walls would keep the city from being physically divided and also improve emergency access. It would also eliminate the need for more than 2.5 million cubic yards of dirt — or 170,000 truckloads— to fill the space between the walls.

Gomez said another benefit is that construction would not impact the operations of the BNSF freight railway.

“That’s been one of the big lessons learned: When we don’t have to impact their operations, it just makes things go a lot faster,” she said.

The rail authority told The Bee the proposed changes would reduce construction time in Shafter by up to 24 months.

“The shortened timeline means the safety benefits of separating automobiles from freight trains would be realized sooner,” the agency said.

Rail authority staff said the agency is also looking at alternative plans in the city of Bakersfield, though those potential changes may not impact that city’s settlement agreement.

Shafter prefers high-speed rail bypass city

Shafter residents, business owners and councilmembers were unimpressed by the rail authority’s proposal.

Rick Jhaj, owner of Countryside Construction, told the agency’s staff the new plans could also spoil local development. He said his business has spent $15 million developing space in town with plans to bring a Me-n-Ed’s Pizzeria.

“I don’t know that’s going to happen anymore with this new development,” he said. “Work with the local community here, find out how to do this correctly without impacting business.”

Mayor Givens noted the Shafter situation is not like Fresno, a city he said is impacted by high-speed rail construction but will eventually see financial gain from the train system. By contrast, he said Shafter is the city in the Central Valley that is most negatively-impacted by the project because it will not receive a high-speed rail station and is being split in half by the train’s route.

“Shafter as a whole would be willing to work with you,” he told rail authority staff, “to find a way or solution to go around the city.”

Pointing to environmental reports with comments from the city, the rail authority told The Bee that Shafter council has historically indicated support for plans that included filled-in walls. The city also sent a letter to the rail authority last year asking for changes to the 2018 agreement.

“The Authority is evaluating every option to build smarter, faster, and more economically,” the agency said in response to The Bee’s question about Shafter’s desire that the train move east and away from the city’s center.

This story was originally published November 6, 2025 at 12:44 PM.

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.