Speaker: Brian Annis, Chief Financial Officer, California High-Speed Rail Authority.

In November of 2008, 53% of California voters decided to take an innovative step forward and allocate $9.95 billion in bond dollars to the creation of a California high-speed rail line. The first high-speed and electrified train in the nation, California high-speed rail will stretch 494 miles from San Francisco to Los/Angeles Anaheim. The Phase 2 system will extend this segment 300 more miles with connections to Sacramento and San Diego. The train will travel at approximately 200mph. A 6 hour and 12-minute car ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles will one day be a brief 2 hour and 40-minute trip on an air conditioned, Wi-Fi-equipped, sustainable bullet train.

California high-speed rail is currently in construction along 119-miles in the Central Valley. 380 miles of the 494 Phase 1 system has been environmentally cleared. Right-of-way, utility relocations, and design for future stations are all advancing. Mr. Annis will provide a general program overview and detail the progress that has been made on California High-Speed rail.

 

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Brian Annis Bio:

Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Brian Annis as the Chief Financial Officer of the California High-Speed Rail Authority in May 2019. He comes to the Authority from the California State Transportation Agency where he served as acting secretary since 2018 and was undersecretary from 2013 to 2018. Prior to that appointment, Brian served as Deputy Secretary for Transportation at the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency. Brian served in various positions for the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, including deputy staff director, principal consultant and consultant. He also served in various positions at the California Department of Finance, including principal program budget analyst, staff finance budget analyst and research analyst. Brian has also been an adjunct professor of economics at American River College and an economist for the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the U.S. Department of Labor.

Brian holds a bachelor’s degree in political economy of natural resources from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Washington.

It’s a Beautiful Country

Let’s see it. Let’s clean it. Let’s build it. Let’s make high speed rail a reality.

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