What's happening in ENR's Southwest region.

With its workforce now peaking at around 30,000, the U.K.'s London-Birmingham 140-mile HS2 high speed railroad is shifting into the fit-out stage with more than $6 billion of track and system work being readied for procurement. 

Grants from the Federal Railroad Administration will fund high-speed passenger rail projects from North Carolina and Virginia to California and Nevada. 

What's happening in the California/Northwest region.

Owner Brightline West says it expects to announce contractors for the project sometime later this year.

Firm sought compensation for not winning contract to build $1.4B station.

Proposition 6 in California poses as a grassroots movement to repeal recently hiked and already high gas taxes when it is something else, too: a vote against the future.

Combined programs will create 300 km of new rail lines and phased tunnels by 2030.