San Jose to Merced Project Section Overview - FULL VIDEO

The San Jose to Merced project section of the California high-speed rail system will provide a critical rail link between the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley. The alignment runs through or near the cities of Santa Clara, San Jose, Morgan Hill, Gilroy, and Los Banos. The project section modernizes the rail corridor between San Jose and Gilroy, allowing for electrified Caltrain and high-speed rail services, and includes more than 15 miles of tunnels through the Pacheco Pass.

Also available in Spanish....

[alanthefisher]

Great! now get those shovels in the dirt

[Awesome_Aasim]

Good job at explaining why the price tag is so high. These structures are not just wanted, they are necessary to reverse the environmental impacts caused by the road transportation and eliminate the potential environmental impacts caused by the planned high speed rail. I don't think anything is being done without much thought. Hope to ride this once the line construction is complete and I am back in the Bay Area.

[luiszepeda]

As a Californian I will not stop believing in this project. Once this is finished and people have a chance to ride it, everyone will forget about how much it cost or how long it took, they will only focus on how awesome train travel really is!!

[TohaBgood]

Get it built! Always glad to see more progress on CHSR!

[JH-pero]

I'll take it. It'll probably mean that Caltrain runs down to Gilroy way more often than it does now, and using Gilroy to connect Monterey Bay is good(less pressure to make Highway 17 carry all the commute traffic). 110 MPH along that corridor and higher frequencies is nothing to dismiss. And building out Diridon and getting BART in there will finally give the Bay a mostly-complete circuit of metro rail. There's a lot to this project section beyond the Central Valley and southern connections.

In the meantime I'll be watching the micromobility space. Cheap, fast-growing, gets cars off the roads, encourages bike infrastructure and collaborates with transit connections. It's a good ground-up movement that changes the picture of last mile services. HSR is something I'll probably only ride as often as airplanes, which isn't that often, but I'll use local streets every day.

[TheRailwayDrone]

Can't wait until construction starts. I'm not sure why they decided to leave grade crossings on a high speed railway. Brightline should serve as an example of why it's not a good idea to do this.

[ChrisJones-gxfc]

Alternative 4 is the best way forward for providing the greatest benefits to the existing Caltrain corridor, but only if there's an emphasis to grade separate the entire corridor, at least between Gilroy and San Jose, before high speed trains start running.

[土浦乗り鉄]

Thank you for sharing a nice video. Greetings from Japan.

[idiot_guy_person]

It's awesome to hear that the CHSRA has a plan to protect Wildlife to prevent any casualties and keeping any species safe.

[crazymonkey]

NICE WORK California High Speed Rail Authority! Keep it up! It's really great that we are thinking about how to diminish the environmental issues and even fix the environmental impacts of the highways. Worth the price tag! Get it built!!!

[stickynorth]

Long overdue! Can't wait to get a ticket to ride!

[andrewk]

The sooner that Gilroy-Merced can be started, the better. The whole Central Valley portion between Merced and Bakersfield is basically shovel ready, and the whole stretch between SF and Gilroy is literally almost already done (via the Caltrain blended system). Crossing the Pacheco Pass is going to be hard and expensive, so the earlier a start, the better.

Bakersfield to LA is a whole different story, hopefully that doesn't take too long 😓 although I think the route from LA to Palmdale has been approved?

[arthurdebacker]

Nice to see some progress on this. People in the US tend to underestimate the impact of a sustainable form of transport on an economy. Look at Japan, China, Germany, France. Where economic development around the modes of transport has been very impressive. This will bring California closer together and hopefully provide an example for the rest of the US

[bryanCJC]

I'm a little dismayed about the lack of grade separation for HSR along the Caltrain ROW. A single car/train crash could disrupt traffic along the entire HSR system. The Caltrain corridor becomes the system's operational Achilles heel.

[Coolsomeone]

1:55 WHY IS THERE AN AT-GRADE LEVEL CROSSING FOR A HIGH SPEED TRAIN

[whoisthatkidd]

Less planning, more building! Just give people shovels and a wad of cash if you have to! The faster we get to groundbreaking the less NIMBYs and oil funded politicians can throw wrenches in the plan.

[theexmann]

That's fantastic news. Good to hear it! This project is gaining more momentum every time I watch one of these video updates.

[ProfLakitax]

I love the ambition that California has, to over come the typical US rail deficiency.

[djwolf]

This is amazing progress! Please see it through to the end! 🙏

[Toast]

This is great, but, the “enclosure”, I am not sure about. So, you’re on the train, and you can’t see anything because you’re in an above ground tunnel? Really?