Measure C money could help bring high-speed rail facility to Fresno. Will officials OK it?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Fresno area has $4.5M from Measure C for HSR heavy maintenance facility.
- State will choose either south Fresno or Hanford, depending on environmental studies.
- Fresno's $4.5M could be used to help extend utilities to facility if Fresno is chosen.
Despite its polarizing nature, the California’s High-Speed Rail project’s economic promise could drive Fresno-area officials to use local tax dollars to help bring one of the future train’s most important facilities to town.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority announced last week that it will choose either a site in south Fresno or an alternative near Hanford for its Heavy Maintenance Facility, which will generate a large number of permanent specialized jobs wherever it’s built.
Fresno has $4.5 million set aside from Measure C, the half-cent sales tax that generates money for transportation projects throughout the county, to help extend utilities to the facility if it’s built in south Fresno. But the allocation would still require an approval from the boards of the Fresno Council of Governments, or COG, and the Fresno County Transportation Authority — both made up mostly of Fresno County supervisors and mayors.
“The project throughout its history has been controversial, but we believe there’s probably enough support,” said Robert Phipps, executive director of the COG.
Before making a decision, Phipps added, Fresno County officials will need guarantees from the rail authority that the facility will be built in Fresno and that its construction is otherwise fully funded.
The Heavy Maintenance Facility will be the only one of its kind on the entire Los Angeles-to-San Francisco rail system. It will be the main hub for in-depth maintenance, inspections, repairs, fleet support, testing and acceptance of train sets. That means it should become active “well before” full passenger service begins, said Will Oliver, CEO of the Fresno County Economic Development Corporation.
He expects the facility to generate at least hundreds of direct jobs and possibly thousands more from rail-related activities.
The rail authority still has to conduct more environmental studies, which are expected to wrap up next year, before deciding between the Fresno and Hanford sites. It’s not yet clear how much the facility will cost to build.
Fresno had $25M for HSR facility. Most was reallocated during project delays
The rail authority recently experienced a backlash from Central Valley mayors over its idea to capture local tax dollars to help pay for high-speed rail and station-area infrastructure.
But Fresno-area officials voted in 2010 to set aside $25 million from Measure C in a fund for the rail maintenance facility. The money in Measure C’s rail facility program was intended to be used for land acquisition, site infrastructure, planning and development and other related activities.
In the decade that followed, Fresno competed with areas across the San Joaquin Valley to be chosen as the site of the maintenance facility. At one point, the county’s transportation authority voted to advance $500,000 to the City of Fresno for the purchase of land where the maintenance facility could be built.
But as the rail project fell off track overall, a decision on the facility’s site was also delayed. It wasn’t until last week that rail authority staff said the agency had whittled a list of 11 potential sites down to Fresno and Hanford.
Most of the money in the Measure C fund for the facility, however, is gone. The county transportation authority voted in 2023 to use $20 million from that fund to help build BNSF Railroad underpasses at the intersection of Blackstone and McKinley avenues.
That leaves $4 million plus the $500,000 set aside in 2017 for site acquisition.
Phipps, the COG executive director, said there is still an opportunity to use the money for the facility — if the state guarantees the Fresno location and fully funded construction.
“I don’t foresee that our elected officials would want to use it (the money) speculatively,” he said. “Fresno has been a good partner to date with High-Speed Rail, and we think there’s a lot of opportunity to continue that.”
