The originally proposed site was to have been located at ground level on Martin Luther King Jr. Way near the interchange with Route 99/59, placing it about 7 blocks south from the existing Merced Amtrak station.

The high-speed rail line will run on the south side of the Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way.

[3] Charles Henry Huffman, who was the SP's agent for land acquisition, founded Merced and moved there when the railroad opened.

[4] The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF) – the SP's main rival – purchased the line in 1899, providing it a parallel competing mainline through the Central Valley.

[4] The California High-Speed Rail Authority's February 2016 draft business plan said that the Merced station would not begin service at the same time as the initial San Jose to Bakersfield route in 2025, but would likely open in 2029 instead.

[11] The station was chosen as the terminus of the Merced Extension project of Altamont Corridor Express commuter rail to bring passenger rail service into Stanislaus and Merced Counties;[12] the siting of ACE platforms will be dependent on the HSR location selection and may also change accordingly.