Commentary: High-speed Rail California Style: Incremental Buildout, Intermodal Connectivity Both Key
High-speed rail in the United States has been a long time in the making. Construction on two projects has already commenced: the California high-speed-rail and Brightline West projects. Interest began to bubble up some 50 years ago. Now, after years of talk, it’s finally happening.
Making The Connection
First, in the case of the California high-speed rail physical plant (read: “infrastructure”) it is being built between Bakersfield and Merced in the state’s San Joaquin Valley extending 171 miles. It is variously known as the interim Initial Operating Segment. At Merced, coordination is to be made with Valley Rail (owned by the Tri-Valley - San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority) and Amtrak.
And, second, there is Brightline West. Company principals made the correct decision to build from Las Vegas in the Silver State, 218 miles southwest, to Rancho Cucamonga in the Golden State where this new train will link up at the station there with Metrolink, where a cross-platform walk will enable passenger transfer between the two train systems. Metrolink, furthermore, provides conventional passenger rail services to five southern California counties: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura.
Building Incrementally
Before Brightline West, there were several other trains proposed. Desert Xpress, XpressWest, Virgin (Trains) and a magnetically levitated or Maglev train. The last was quickly ruled out as an option. Initially the line was to be dieselized, trains maxing out at a top speed of 125 mph. Before too long it was realized that this plan was not going to hold water. That operating arrangement was abandoned outright and it was replaced by a 150 mph-capable electrified version. Today’s iteration will utilize electric high-speed technology, the trains themselves to run at a top speed of close to 200 mph.
And one more item of note, the line was proposed to end in the high-desert California community of Victorville where a parking lot was supposed to be built that would accommodate a large number of motor vehicles that passengers could leave there before boarding the trains and then drive off the lot once they returned. Very similar to the way things are done at airports.
With both projects the rail intermodal link-ups are temporary, or an interim step. The plan is for Brightline West to extend all the way to Los Angeles and presumably to terminate at Los Angeles Union Station. Similarly, the California high-speed rail system will connect San Francisco with Los Angeles/Anaheim on some 480 miles of track. That’s referred to as Phase 1. Phase 2 will bring the train to Sacramento and San Diego, that is, if built. All extensions are contingent on the funding needed to do this materializing.
In the meantime, the cooperative service/incremental-build approach, in my opinion, is key to sustainability and will ensure longevity.
I am also of the opinion that once the public sees the trains in action, get a ticket to ride and experience high-speed train travel firsthand, the public will warm up to and come to embrace them and realize this to be a method of travel that, in America, has been sorely missing prompting many to ask how it is we didn’t build a bullet-train system sooner. And, once that happens, we will fast come to know what we’ve been missing all this time.
The Northeast Corridor, meanwhile, with its 160-mph-capable Acela trains and connecting Boston and Washington, D.C. on 457 miles of rail right of way, is, so far, the closest thing this country has to bonafide high-speed rail.
Notes
In an earlier version the Tri-Valley - San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority was inadvertently mistakenly identified as the San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Commission. Revised text includes the corrected information.
Updated: Sept. 22, 2024 at 8:07 a.m. PDT.
Image data: California High-Speed Rail Authority/Wikimedia Commons
All material copyrighted 2024, Alan Kandel. All Rights Reserved.