California’s high-speed rail project is changing course again in Bakersfield, abandoning plans for a downtown station and shifting the proposed stop to a site north of 7th Standard Road.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority said the Bakersfield station will not be at the proposed downtown “F Street” location for now. Michael Turnipseed, the board chairman of the Kern County Taxpayers Association, said the downtown station plan “was doomed from the start.”
“And this will probably go down in history as the worst public works project in the history of the United States,” Turnipseed said.
Turnipseed said money was a major factor in preventing the downtown plan, pointing to engineering challenges at the site.
“All you had to do was talk to any engineer in town and they would tell you, you can’t build a 20-story building there because of the sand. It’s river sand. It’s flood plain. It would cost so much,” he said.
Asked what prompted the change, the California High-Speed Rail Authority did not provide an explanation. A spokesperson said the agency was unable to comment before the newscast.
The project’s Capital Cost Basis of Estimate report describes the 7th Standard Road location as “interim” and says it will provide strategic access to Meadows Field Airport. The report also says the location will not block the future track alignment that will continue to downtown Bakersfield and Palmdale.
The report does not say when the 7th Standard Road location is set to be completed, but some media outlets report it will not be until 2033.
“Seven years from now. That’ll be when the next governor will be going out of office and you have to think they’re going to come to Bakersfield,” Turnipseed said.
Turnipseed called the high-speed rail a great idea, but said there is not enough intellectual capability to handle such a complex problem.