California high-speed rail

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California High-Speed Rail

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Locale	California
Transit type	High-speed rail
System length	700+ miles (1125+ kilometers) (estimate).
Daily ridership	115,000 to 186,000 (estimate).
Operator	California High-Speed Rail Authority

California High Speed Rail is a proposed high speed rail system in the state of California. The system is being planned by the California High Speed Rail Authority, which will design, build, and operate the system.

It is currently in the Environment Impact Report (EIR) and route selection stages, which are expected to finish by Fall 2007.

If built, bullet trains will be able to speed across California at speeds of up to 220 mph (350 km/h), potentially linking San Francisco to Los Angeles in around two and one-half hours.

Funding

A state-wide ballot measure to fund the core segment of the high speed rail was initially scheduled for the 2004 general election. It was delayed until 2006, then postponed again and is now scheduled for 2008. If passed, the ballot measure would provide US$9 billion for the construction of the core segment between San Francisco and Los Angeles and an additional US$950 million for improvements on local railroad systems, which would serve as feeder systems for high speed rail mainline. However, the project would still depend on federal matching funds, since a US$9.95 billion bond issue would cover at most half of the estimated cost of the initial core segment. According to a 2004 estimate, the complete system from Sacramento to San Diego would likely have a cost of more than US$30 billion. California High Speed Rail Authority planned to use the projected operating profit from the initial San Francisco-Los Angeles line to finance extensions to Sacramento and San Diego.

In January 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger chose to omit the initial funds for the California High-Speed Rail Project from his $222.6 billion dollar Public Works Bond over the next 10 years. The Governor included $14.3 million in the 2006-07 budget for the high-speed rail, enough for CHSRA to begin some preliminary works. The high speed rail bond measure was delayed from 2006 to 2008 to avoid competition with the huge infrastructure bond, which passed in the 2006 General Election.

Route

The system will initially stretch from San Francisco and Sacramento, via the Central Valley, and onward to Los Angeles and San Diego via the Inland Empire. There are a few more stations under proposal.

Proposed stations on the route:[1]

• San Francisco
• San Francisco International Airport
• Redwood City/Palo Alto
• San Jose
• Oakland
• Oakland International Airport
• Union City
• Sacramento
• Stockton
• Modesto
• Merced
• Fresno
• Bakersfield
• Palmdale
• Sylmar
• Burbank
• Los Angeles
• Norwalk
• Anaheim
• Irvine
• City of Industry
• Ontario
• Riverside
• Murrieta
• Escondido
• University City
• San Diego

External links

• A less expensive alternative: Mass Tram America
• California High Speed Rail Authority
• Architecture21 - Present reasons for using the Altamont alignment.
• The Full Cost of Intercity Transportation Study done at University of California, Berkeley examining the system
• sfcityscape.com