Despite uncertainty about the budget and timeline, the majority of Californians who participated in recent polls say California’s high-speed rail projects are still worthy of state funding.
A poll conducted by Emerson College and commissioned by KTLA’s parent company, Nexstar Media, found that 54% of those surveyed had the project effectively utilized state funds.
This is good news for the recently tragic project on the cross of President Donald Trump and other Republican lawmakers.
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The figures coincided with similar 2022 polls from Berkeley, California and the Los Angeles Times, which found that 56% of registered voters were in favor of the project at the time.
The rendering shows the high-speed train as you enter the proposed Fresno station. (Getty Images)
Officials with the California High Speed Railroad Bureau say the new Nexstar polls strengthen their long-standing position than the project is more popular.
“The results of the poll show what we know by talking to Californians every day. There is strong support for building a high-speed rail line from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and people are We want to complete the work,” an official spokesperson said. Statement provided to KTLA.
But not everyone is buying it.
State Senate minority leader Brian Jones (R-San Diego), an outspoken critic of the project, denounced the polls for not including the big picture.
“Currently, the project has a budget of $95 billion, decades behind, and there is no clear timeline for completion,” Jones said in an email.
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The polls intentionally asked respondents to choose their level of support based on what they saw, read, or listened to the project. It did not go into details about costs or timelines, but relied on each respondent’s individual knowledge and understanding of the project. It’s not uncommon for this type of poll.
The aerial image shows the construction work on the Hanford viaduct, the largest high-speed rail structure in the Central Valley, as part of Hanford’s California High Speed Rail Project on February 12, 2025. The length of the structure is over 6,000 feet. (Getty Images)
Jones also criticised the size of the vote, surveying 1,000 Californians, saying polls of that size “can’t be taken seriously.”
With approximately 22 million registered voters in California, it’s nearly impossible to vote on a particular topic. However, it is common to use polls of this size to estimate broader public opinion.
Emerson College Polling said its poll has a reliability rating of around 3% points, similar to the margin of error. And while the polls aren’t perfect, the results should be within the 20-times or 95% forecast range.
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Despite public perceptions in favor of the project, there are still legitimate concerns about the viability of the project.
A recent report from the CAHSR office raised the alarm that the current forecast timeline for 2033 failed to complete the initial operation segment between Merced and Bakersfield. It’s even more uncertain, and funding is still a problem.
However, with almost all of the project being cleared environmentally, authorities call it “shovel-ready” for construction, helping to close earlier than if their opponents were worried about further costs. I insist that it needs to be done.
California Governor Gavin Newsom joined the officials of the California High Speed Railroad Bureau at a groundbreaking ceremony near Bakersfield on January 6, 2025. (California Governor’s Office)
To date, the California High Speed Railroad Bureau has spent about $13 billion on the project, of which $10.5 billion was only released by the state, officials said.
While funding continues to be a looming issue throughout the life of the project, construction crews focus on one thing at a time. Now, that means working on 171 miles of active construction in Central Valley.
Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom joined Ian Choudri near Bakersfield, the CEO of the California High Speed Railroad Department, to celebrate the project’s groundbreaking milestone at Railehead. .
To track the current construction progress on California’s high speed rail yourself, staff say you can access buildhsr.com.
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