The High-Speed Rail Authority unanimously approved a revised business plan Thursday afternoon in San Francisco. Board members voted 6-0, with one absent vote, to trim costs by about $30 billion.
The project is now estimated to cost about $68.4 billion — far more than what voters agreed to in 2008 when they authorized the project.
Vice Chairman Dan Richard praised the plan for cutting costs by using existing rail lines.
"This plan [ties] high-speed rail… to regional and local transportation systems in a much stronger fashion than our draft plan did, both in the Central Valley, here in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Southern California," Richard said.
Chairman Bob Balgenorth said the project would put thousands of people to work and bring California into the future.