State high-speed rail officials said all options remain on the table as they cast about for the ideal site to build a station in Merced.

“There have been no decisions made regarding the station in Merced or its location,” a spokesperson for the High-Speed Rail Authority wrote in a statement, a week after community organizers sent the agency a cease-and-desist letter seeking to keep the station downtown.

It was the latest twist in an ongoing saga over how to include the Central Valley city in larger plans now focused on bringing trains into downtown San Francisco. Last year the authority blind-sided Merced officials by publishing a project update that prioritized routes from Bakersfield to the Bay Area, potentially bypassing Merced altogether in a bid to cut costs and accelerate service to more populated regions.

In the ensuing months, local leaders worked with the authority on a compromise that would move the stop about four miles southeast of downtown, to what’s currently a country road lined with pistachio orchards and a defunct wholesale warehouse. The shift would serve most of the Authority’s objectives, shaving about $1 billion off the project budget, hastening the construction timeline and opening a path for trains to quickly cut west to Gilroy.

Merced Mayor Matthew Serratto and other policymakers seemed pleased with this solution, as did rail planners who wrote in the 2026 business plan that a southeast station would provide access to the University at Merced and the Merced Yosemite Regional Airport, while paving the way for “a future development path” along the corridor of Highway 99 and Campus Parkway. Even more tantalizing, it could serve as a gateway to Yosemite National Park, given the parcel’s proximity to Highway 140.

In June the authority put out a request for qualifications for firms to design and build the 30-mile section of rail from Merced to Madera, which seemed to cement the southeast station plan. It described a segment that would run south of Mission Avenue, skirting Merced’s city borders.

But the coalition of organizers and their lawyer cited state law that obliges the authority to build a station in Merced’s population center, which is already being developed around the concept of rail, noted Lety Valencia, director of organizing for Faith in the Valley. She pointed to the new restaurants, shops and cafes that have sprung up around an existing terminal for Amtrak and ACE, which could become a major transportation hub.

That possibility is still under consideration, according to the Authority’s statement. It assured that the agency “conducts all procurements in an open, transparent, and competitive manner,” allowing any outside observer to review the materials.

“The current procurement includes a priced option for a downtown Merced station,” the statement continued, “ensuring that if agreements on an alternative location with the city and the legislature are not reached, the Authority may exercise the downtown option with its design‑builder.”

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