{"id":348208,"date":"2026-06-05T16:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T16:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/348208\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T16:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T16:49:13","slug":"fresno-hanford-remain-contenders-for-rail-maintenance-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/348208\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno, Hanford remain contenders for rail maintenance hub"},"content":{"rendered":"

The California High-Speed Rail Authority<\/a> has whittled down a list of potential sites for its biggest maintenance facility to two options: A 300-acre space between highways 99 and 41 in south Fresno and an alternative just outside Hanford.<\/p>\n

Known as the Heavy Maintenance Facility<\/a>, the operation is expected to generate a large amount of permanent, specialized jobs. Though multiple types of maintenance facilities are planned, there will be only one heavy maintenance facility on the entire 500-mile Los Angeles-to-San Francisco segment.<\/p>\n

LaDonna DiCamillo, the rail authority\u2019s interim planning director, said during Monday\u2019s board meeting that further environmental studies are needed, which will wrap up by next year. If no problems arise, California\u2019s fifth-largest city is the natural choice, said Henry Perea, a rail authority board member from Fresno.<\/p>\n

\u201cFresno has always been the perfect location,\u201d Perea told The Bee. \u201cWe\u2019re right in the center of the Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rail authority had a list of 11 potential facility sites between Merced and Bakersfield. DiCamillo said Monday that most have been eliminated<\/a> because they are fully located in flood plains or would require too much extra track construction, among other reasons.<\/p>\n

Similar to much else in the rail project, a final decision on the facility\u2019s location has dragged on for years. Communities across the San Joaquin Valley competed to host the operation in the previous decade and expected a decision years ago.<\/p>\n

\u2018Hundreds of direct jobs\u2019 and available Fresno workforce<\/p>\n

Will Oliver, CEO of the Fresno County Economic Development Corporation, said in a statement to The Fresno Bee that the facility would serve as \u201ca major center\u201d for maintenance, inspections, repairs, fleet support, testing and acceptance of train sets. That means it should become active \u201cwell before\u201d full passenger service begins, he added.<\/p>\n

The number of jobs the facility generates will depend on its design and operations plan. But Oliver expects it could support \u201chundreds of direct jobs in phase one.\u201d It could also help generate \u201cthousands of jobs over time\u201d through suppliers, contractors and other rail-related activities, he added.<\/p>\n

Oliver said Fresno WORKS \u2014 a coalition of elected officials, unions and industry leaders \u2014 has spent more than a decade preparing for the arrival of high-speed rail. That work included planning for the potential maintenance facility.<\/p>\n

Chuck Riojas, executive secretary-treasurer of the Fresno-Madera-Tulare-Kings Building Trades Council, said Fresno County has the workforce to operate the facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a million people,\u201d he said. \u201cNothing against Hanford, but we do have the residents to draw from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riojas, who runs two pre-apprenticeship programs at the rail authority\u2019s training center in Selma, said he\u2019s toured heavy maintenance facilities in European countries. He said there are rail-related career pathways in those countries that begin in high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s phenomenal,\u201d Riojas said. \u201cI could see the same thing happening here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Erik Galicia<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

Erik is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, where he helped launch an effort to better meet the news needs of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Before that, he served as editor-in-chief of his community college student newspaper, Riverside City College Viewpoints, where he covered the impacts of the Salton Sea\u2019s decline on its adjacent farm worker communities in the Southern California desert.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The California High-Speed Rail Authority has whittled down a list of potential sites for its biggest maintenance facility…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-348208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}