While Metro is abuzz with several different projects in the works, ranging from the transformative railways on both the east and west sides of the San Fernando Valley to the D line west side expansion opening its first phase in May 2026, it’s a starkly different story on a national level. America is a car-centric nation, including states like California, New York, and Illinois that are home to bustling metropolitan areas where millions of people don’t use a car to get around at all.
Yet the dream of national high-speed rail persists, despite resistance from multiple levels of policymakers.
In California, Amtrak is more for adventure than practicality compared to its Northeast Corridor counterpart. While not without its practical elements, like a pleasantly beachy 3-hour ride from LA to San Diego via the Pacific Surfliner in lieu of bumper-to-bumper traffic on the PCH, most people don’t want to sit on the Coast Starlight for literally 13 hours to reach Oakland unless there’s no other option. Hence, the long-embattled cause to get high-speed rail built in California despite the environmental, engineering, and policy hurdles.
So, why does a 4-hour drive become a 13-hour train ride and why has there been strong resistance to increased passenger rail in Southern California? Freight routes. Somewhere between San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles, the Coast Starlight is under strict regulation to travel at 15 miles per hour to avoid potential collisions with freighters.
Between the incredibly slow speeds, contentious sharing right-of-way with freight trains, and lack of onboard Wi-Fi, people want better passenger rail options out of Los Angeles for longer journeys beyond the Bay. With Brightline West projecting to open a 218-mile high-speed rail route between Rancho Cucamonga and Las Vegas by 2029, other private rail companies made bids to increase rail connectivity out west.
One of them was the Transcontinental Chief that would go all the way to New York, providing an alternative to the 3-4 day trek involving a transfer in Chicago.
Amtrak Rejects AmeriStarRail’s Transcontinental Chief Proposal to Operate Continuous, Transfer-Free Segment from Los Angeles to New York
Per Railway Supply, AmeriStarRail pitched a private proposal to Amtrak for a continuous journey utilizing existing freight and passenger infrastructure between the northeast and Union Station in Los Angeles, with promises to complete the project by May 2026 in time for the FIFA World Cup at SoFi Stadium.
Despite the buzz among transit-hungry Angelinos and visitors coming for the World Cup, Amtrak flatly rejected the proposal in December 2025. AmeriStarRail remains keen on moving public-private joint ventures forward, possibly in time for the 2028 Olympics in which transcontinental proposals may be more prime for negotiation.
However, the Transcontinental Chief would not have been high-speed rail as it would utilize existing rail line that is subject to the same constraints as Amtrak’s current routes, like the aforementioned Coast Starlight that turns a 4-hour drive between LA and the Bay Area into a 13-hour trek.
Even if AmeriStarRail’s proposal had passed, you’d still have a journey of at least 3 days, except Chicago would be a stop instead of a transfer point. The Transcontinental Chief’s proposed route also originated in Hoboken, NJ instead of Penn Station across the Hudson, with the next stop in Harrisburg, PA. The ensuing stops in AmeriStarRail’s proposal are Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, Kansas City, and Albuquerque with Los Angeles as the terminus.
While the usage of existing railway could expedite such a project, frequent riders concurred with Amtrak’s rejection over concerns about layovers, and the noise from freighters and lack of soundwalls in both trains and stations which is a pain point in Amtrak’s current sleeper service. Without alleviation for the long travel times and layovers that makes current Amtrak infrastructure unappealing to most transcontinental travelers, they can easily make the same journeys using existing Amtrak routes.
So, no. Unfortunately, transcontinental high-speed rail isn’t coming to Los Angeles or elsewhere in America any time soon. However, the Brightline West high-speed rail originating in Rancho Cucamonga, about 90 minutes from Union Station via the San Bernandino Metrolink line, is actually underway and expected to open in 2029, as are numerous exciting Metro projects at the local level.
