Plans to make high-speed rail the new gateway to Yosemite National Park have met resistance from community organizers in the Central Valley, who last week sent a cease-and-desist letter to the California High-Speed Rail.

It’s the first salvo in what could be a long legal battle to preserve the original plans for the railway, which include a station in downtown Merced. Earlier this year, officials began discussing options to move the stop about four miles southeast, to what’s currently a country road lined with pistachio orchards and a defunct wholesale warehouse.

Some elected officials favor this idea because it would accelerate construction and possibly save at least $1 billion for the floundering megaproject. A few see it as a possible rebrand. The new site would border Campus Parkway and Highway 99, with “very easy access” to State Route 140, the path to Yosemite, Merced Mayor Matthew Serratto said in a February interview.

“It could be a Merced- Yosemite station,” Serratto mused at the time.

But opponents contend the move would violate a state law mandating that the station be built in Merced’s population center.

“The HSRA has no authority to unilaterally re-route the high-speed rail project out of downtown Merced without prior authorization from the California legislature,” the letter says.

As evidence, the letter points to a June request for qualifications for firms to design and build the 30-mile section of rail from Merced to Madera, which would run south of Mission Avenue outside the city of Merced. The site now under contemplation lies in an unincorporated part of the county, which would allow trains to cut west toward Gilroy.

Although the request for qualifications did not specify an exact location for the new station, it was pretty clear to the letter-writers that it would not rise from a busy downtown street.

“A south Merced station will provide greater access to the University of California at Merced, Merced Yosemite Regional Airport, and the future development path of the city while providing connections to downtown,” High-Speed Rail Authority staff wrote in the agency’s 2026 business plan.

Spokespeople for the rail authority were not immediately available to comment on Tuesday.

Lety Valencia, director of organizing for Faith in the Valley — one of nine organizations that signed the letter — criticized the Authority for trying to rush decisions without a transparent public process.

“Small businesses invested heavily into downtown with this promise that the downtown station was going to bring more people into our communities,” Valencia told the Chronicle. “It was going to connect us to the Bay Area, Amtrak and ACE. Limitless opportunities.”

Now, she said, high-speed rail officials want to bypass the city’s existing multimodal hub of restaurants, grocery stores, and the El Capitan Hotel, instead opting for a site that is largely undeveloped.

“We know what will happen,” Valencia said, predicting a future of car-oriented suburban sprawl if the rail station becomes a park-and-ride.

Serratto expressed empathy for these concerns in an interview on Tuesday. Still, he sees the pragmatism of the new station plan.

“The situation is very complex,” he said, “because the design for the rail is an unfunded mandate. They say, ‘do all this,’ but it takes a lot of money to do it.”

Considering all the budget constraints on high-speed rail, moving a Merced station to the boondocks is “a better deal,” Serratto ventured.

What impact the letter will have in the near term is unclear. Nick Jensen, the attorney representing the organizations that signed on, said their hope is for high-speed rail to follow the law. Serratto said he believes the state agency is seeking statutory changes that would help cut down project costs and make the plans more flexible.

The letter follows a series of setbacks for high-speed rail, most recently a state audit that found the authority paid nearly $600,000 in unauthorized consultant expenses, including for premium flights and rides to gyms, a nightclub and an escape room.

Do you think high-speed rail is still worth building in California?

California’s high-speed rail agency is exploring partnerships with data centers as a way to raise money for the long-delayed project, sparking concerns from Central Valley residents.

Most Recent Top Responses

Todd C

Sacramento, CA

09/22/26

Fund it and build it! All these years of opposition, and on and off federal funding have done nothing but delay and increase the cost.

John R

Pinole, CA

06/20/26

Yes, but it needs more public financing - through another ballot measure perhaps. Data centers need to be partnerships in which the community gains something. Also, it is possible to build an environmentally-friendly data center and that should be pursued.

Trying to monetize everything and force money raising schemes on the communities that are part of the rail line is not smart. They have suffered the most from the build out and therefore should have a seat at the table.

Mike Z

San Francisco, CA

06/19/26

Maybe we should check with China, France, Japan, etc., to see how they do it.

Arturo C

Davis, CA

06/19/26

A datacenter-funded train means the livelihood of the Central Valley becomes part of the cost of establishing it.

Susan V

San Francisco, CA

06/18/26

Yes. Other countries have high-speed rail. It's a worthy infrastructure project to give people an alternative to flying and driving.

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