Who are we?
The development of high-speed rail is a key objective for the United States, providing mobility options to key destinations with efficiency and comfort. The California High-Speed Rail Project, now well underway, aligns perfectly with this objective, providing increased mobility and an environmentally sustainable future for all Californians.
Colas Rail and RailWorks have joined forces to support California in building the railway and catenary systems for its future high-speed line.
We believe that this partnership, which brings together Colas Rail’s extensive international experience in high-speed rail construction with RailWorks’ rail systems construction expertise in North America—especially California—will offer the Authority the best solution to meet the challenges ahead.
Our Commitment to Local Hire and Workforce Development
California High-Speed Partners (CHSP) is proud to be an active partner in delivering the California High-Speed Rail project and a committed participant in the project’s Community Benefits Agreement (CBA). This agreement ensures that the economic benefits of the project directly support local communities and workers, especially those who have historically faced barriers to employment.
Through the CBA, CHSP is dedicated to:
- Prioritizing Local Hire by ensuring that qualified workers from communities near the project have access to meaningful employment opportunities.
- Hiring Targeted Workers, including veterans, single parents, justice-involved individuals, and other workers who have traditionally faced obstacles to stable employment in the construction industry.
- Creating sustainable Training Pathways through partnerships with pre-apprenticeship and state-certified apprenticeship programs, helping to build long-term career opportunities for workers entering or advancing in the trades.
- Collaborating with labor unions, community organizations, and workforce development partners to ensure equitable access to project jobs and career-building programs.
CHSP is committed to advancing California’s vision of high-speed rail while delivering real, lasting benefits to the communities and workers that help make this transformative project possible.
About Colas Rail
Everywhere in the world today, cities & countries are being reinvented and this revolution leads to new ways of thinking and developing mobility.
Through its projects and specialized agencies, Colas Rail, the rail subsidiary of the Colas Group, is the company of choice that offers design, financing, and management services for major rail infrastructure projects in France and abroad. Colas Rail employs 6,000 people, working in twelve different business lines, with 23 entities around the world. Our mission is to sustainably design and implement public transport solutions to meet the needs of our clients while putting passengers first.
The complementarity of our twelve areas of expertise has made us a rail specialist, but also a multi-skilled integrator able to deliver projects that cover infrastructures’ entire life cycle.
Tracks: Colas Rail is the undisputed leader and specialist in high-speed lines in France and on international markets.
Overhead lines: Colas Rail designs and builds electrification systems (overhead lines, contact lines and third rail), meeting the most complex demands, especially concerning High Speed lines.
Civil engineering: Colas Rail conducts specific engineering work in tunnels (reinforcements, gauge adjustments, mining, etc.) and foundations.
Railway safety: Colas Rail brings together all the skills linked to the safety of work on the network, on closed lines and lines in operation: certification and safety warnings.
Training: Approved by EPSF (securite-ferroviaire.fr), CampusFER is Colas Rail’s training, evaluation and examining body. It offers a catalogue of some sixty training courses for everybody working in the railway sector.
Infrastructure management: Colas Rail carries out comprehensive management services for railway infrastructures for private companies: multimodal platform management, upkeep, maintenance, railway operations, audits, and works.
Rolling stock maintenance: Colas Rail offers rolling stock maintenance services for works trains for all companies in the sector.
Heavy vehicle: Colas Rail operates and maintains, as part of maintenance operations, different types of heavy railway machinery, either on its own or on behalf of its client.
Distribution sub-stations: Colas Rail is specialised in designing, installing and putting into service electrical installations such as EALE sub-stations, electrical distribution and powering auxiliaries.
Low voltage & telecoms: Colas Rail designs and builds low-voltage systems that transport Voice / Data / Image information via wired or wireless networks (radio, WI-FI, GSM…) and technical and audio-visual supervision systems for transport infrastructures.
Railway signaling: Colas Rail designs control and communication systems to ensure traffic safety.
Electro-mechanical & safety equipment: Colas Rail provides electro-mechanical safety systems: ventilation, smoke extraction, pumping, lighting emergency exits, mechanization of escalators and lifts.
About RailWorks
As North America’s leading track and transit system experts, RailWorks is the largest company in North America providing construction and maintenance services exclusively to the rail transportation market. RailWorks provides a partnering first approach in working with our customers that include passenger rail transit agencies, Class 1, short line and regional railroads, manufacturers and industrial companies, ports, and utilities.
We are experts in track construction and maintenance for all forms of rail travel and with our L.K. Comstock brand, RailWorks provides transit systems expertise through construction and maintenance services for train control, signaling, communications, traction power, AC high / medium voltage power distribution and overhead catenary systems for all modes of transit. We are uniquely positioned to provide integrated track and systems services and solutions to the entire North American market.
In FY23, RailWorks had revenues of over $1.2bn with over 3,500 employees operating in 50+ facilities across the US and Canada including California where RailWorks and Comstock have built and are building some of the largest transit projects in North America.