By RALPH VARTABEDIAN at the LA Times

February 8, 2022

California bullet train officials on Tuesday released a new draft project blueprint that acknowledges that costs have risen roughly $5 billion but seeks to address several issues that have generated blowback.

The 2022 business plan estimates that the full, 500-mile, high-speed system between Los Angeles and San Francisco will cost as much as $105 billion, up from $100 billion two years ago. In 2008, when voters approved a bond to help build the railroad, the authority estimated that the system would cost $33 billion.

In its latest blueprint, the California High Speed Rail Authority abandoned a plan to save money by building only a single track for an initial 171-mile operating system between Bakersfield and Merced; instead, it plans to build a two-track system.

When it added the one-track system to its 2020 business plan, the authority asserted that additional capacity would not be needed. But the proposal came under fire; some experts said it would eventually cost more than building two tracks at the same time.

Read more at the LA Times