High Speed Rail Now

Been a while, but...

2008-03-08T15:49:00.000-08:00

...it's eight months till the vote on California's high speed rail bond. The CHSRA seems to have a number of entities upset with them right now, including San Diego, because they have the line from LA-San Diego in the second phase of the plan, the Central Valley, because of the choice of the Pacheco routing, and Northern California environmental and transportation groups, again because of the Pacheco choice.

I fall into the latter group. I can see how they can afford to trade-off us against the entities lobbying for Pacheco, but the rage they've inspired in the Central Valley folks is bad. The San Diego problem is totally different, as there has to be some phasing of the project. They can also point to the confusion in Southern California over the two or three independent Maglev proposals. Thank god we don't have to deal with those snake oil salesmen up here.

The Valley is key to the project. High speed rail is EXACTLY what the Valley needs to connect it to the rest of the state. Too bad the CHSRA has made enemies of them.

Tired

2007-10-24T20:24:00.000-07:00

So the San Francisco Bay Area's Metropolitian Planning Agency, the Metropolitian Transportation Commission, weighed in today on how high speed rail should get from the Central Valley to the Bay Area. Their decision was to choose both choices.....

Punt!

....more later

The Terminator?

2007-06-29T12:30:00.001-07:00

As we slip in to Summer in California, it seems that the future of high speed rail rests with the Terminator. From the meager amount proposed in Governor Schwarzenegger's budget to the $40-50 proposed by the California Assembly and Senate, the final budget for high speed rail will rest with the Governor. Will he agree with the legislators or will he kill the project?

Support has been building around the state, yet the Governor still holds firm with nothing more than lip service. He claims to support the project, but doesn't want the state to step forward until the private sector comes forth with billions. The way the California budget process works, the legislature works up a budget after reviewing the Governor's budget. They have added in about half the original budget requested by the high speed rail authority. This is enough to keep the project on track for the Fall 2008 bond vote. BUT the Governor has a line-item veto in California. That means, once presented with the budget, he gets a thumbs up/donw on everything.

Will Governor play the Terminator once again?

Train could be rolling in to the station

2007-02-27T21:41:00.000-08:00

Folks-

Start thinking about how you can make sure that this year's state budget ensures that the high speed rail project keeps moving forward. I'd like to see the train finally make it into the station someday.

Someone else is working on this

2007-02-27T21:36:00.000-08:00

Check out:

...for a nice discussion of the project.

If not High Speed Rail, then what?

2007-02-27T21:13:00.000-08:00

Our governor doesn't want to fund high speed rail. What magic transportation does he see us using in 2025?

If we go on as we are, the airports will get bigger and more crowded. The roads will be widened, and more crowded. More of the same, just worse. Bigger airports aren't better- ask someone who has seen the growth of Oakland or Burbank over the past 20 years. Wider highways mean the landscaping gives way to soundwalls and more lanes. If that's the future that we see for our state, it's sad.

We have the chance NOW to do something. Move into line, although behind, Vietnam, Morocco and Turkey, and get to building a transportation system for the modern world. Clean and green....

Bad German Links

2007-02-14T13:56:00.000-08:00

Folks-

Sorry. Gotta fix the links to all the German rail photos.

UPDATE- Got them fixed

-yHSRH

Freeway?

2007-02-14T13:14:00.001-08:00

Take a look at this photo:

Notice how things are going on the freeway? What do you think the mental state is of the drivers on the freeway versus the passengers on the train that's going close to 200mph?

High speed rail- it's good for you.

The Bistro Car

2007-02-14T13:10:00.000-08:00

Flown lately? Those cross-country flights now offer you a chance to buy a boxed-snack or a $5 beer. And we all know about the regulations of bringing food and drink through security. You can buy food in the secure areas of an airport and bring it aboard, but many airports still do not offer food much better than what comes in the snack box.

On the other hand, it may not be home cooking, but railway food is better. And you can get up and purchase it when you want it, not when the trolley is wheeled down the aisle. Food service on our future high speed train will not be the dining cars of your, with china and silver, and probably not a dedicated dining car, as on some German high speed trains:

But you can always order snacks and take them back to your seat, or bring on whatever you like. Order an apple juice or beer on draft at the bistro car:

Regardless, the whole travel experience will outdo a flight by a factor of many.

Deer and Bunnies and Less-cute Things

2007-02-14T13:09:00.000-08:00

Animals aren't good at crossing highways or railways. Highways, with their almost constant traffic, split the natural habitats of a lot of creatures. The easiest to visualize is a highway along a river or stream. Animals need water, so they need to cross the road. They often don't make it.

At the larger scale, a freeway can sever the natural migration of the majority of a species. The same effect is possible with a high speed railway. Luckily, as California's system is built, it will reap the benefits of scholarship about mitigating the severing of migratory species.

On a ride from Fresno to San Luis Obispo a few years back, I was fascinated by the construction along State Route 41, west of Interstate 5, where the 2-lane roadway was being replaced by a 4-lane expressway. In one section, the new highway was about 6 feet higher than the existing road, and there were large box culverts (box-shaped pipes) passing under the new highway grade all long its path. These were there to let smaller wildlife cross the new highway unimpeded.

Following this experience, I became aware of the mitigations for wildlife that can be engineered in to a project. I found it's just not enough to provide the culverts for the creatures, you need to plant some cover at each side of the culvert so the animal just doesn't pop out into the landscape on the other side. Why? Predators will soon learn that the hole under the roadway serves up a tasty selection of snacks. With cover plantings at each side, the prey can hide in vegetation that they're familiar with and survey the path ahead to ensure it's clear of predators before continuing their journey.

This is a bat cave built along a new high speed line in Germany

For larger creatures, larger undercrossings or even a short tunnel to allow the natural habitat to flow over the railway are appropriate. Along the line in England, there are a few locations where short tunnels were placed as an environmental mitigation. The same exists along lines in Germany and I'm sure elsewhere. In England, some of the tunnel sections were built using pre-built concrete arch sections that locked together over the railway to form the tunnel structure. The cut in the landscape surrounding the railway and tunnel arch was then filled back up with the soil originally excavated.

The high speed railway knows it needs to tread lightly in sensitive places. The know-how to do this has been established in locations all over the world. The deer and bunnies need not worry.

September 2003

2007-02-14T13:08:00.000-08:00

On September 28th, 2003, the first section of the high speed rail line from the Channel Tunnel towards London opened. In November 2007, the second and final section will open, placing Paris 2:15 from London and Brussels 2:00 away. This railway was an international effort. It was realized "that the wheel didn't need to be reinvented". The line is the same design as the French HSR, tried and tested for almost a quarter of a century now.

German high speed train testing at the Lille Europe station in France

The first phase of the project was delivered on time, and the second phase is on track for an on-time delivery, as well. Building high speed railways does not require magic. There is no new technology to master. We need to keep this in mind as California moves closer to building her line.

Fresno!

2007-02-14T13:07:00.000-08:00

Surprise! Fresno is the most populous city in the Central Valley of California. Yep, bigger than Sacramento. Almost half a million people live within the city limits. If you through in the surrounding communities, the population is greater than the entire state of Wyoming.

It takes about 3:30 to drive to Fresno from either San Francisco or Los Angeles. Amtrak takes a bit under four hours and the fare is $92 roundtrip. Picking a date about a month away from the writing of this entry, and including a Saturday overnight, a roundtrip ticket to fly to Fresno from SFO would cost a bit over $500. A trip from LAX to Fresno would be a bit better, at about $400 roundtrip. For comparison, SFO to LAX would be $150.

The largest city in the Central Valley is isolated. This makes it unattractive for companies to locate there and stunts interaction between Fresno and the other major population centers of the state. Fresno is orphaned.

High speed rail would change this. Fresno would be 1:15 from San Francisco and 1:20 from LA. This drastic increase in accessibility would do wonders for the economy of Fresno. Connected into the economy of the state, higher skill jobs would be made available to Fresnoites through firms seeking to expand their businesses in California but constrained by the higher cost of doing business in the coastal cities. In other words, businesses that would otherwise leave California could stay in the state and provide new opportunities for people in the Central Valley.

Or, we could ignore the cities of the Central Valley, as we do now, and continue to ignore so much of California's future.

SFO and HSR

2007-01-22T13:16:00.000-08:00

This comes from an April 2005 interview with John Martin, the head of San Francisco International Airport.

Q: How do airport managers feel about establishing high-speed rail for California? Do you support the high-speed rail initiative?

A: The airport commission has come on record in support of high-speed rail. We think it would reduce the number of flights here, and we would see a 5 to 8 percent drop in passenger traffic if high-speed rail is introduced. The markets it would help us with — markets like Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego — are markets that are primarily served by smaller aircraft. So we might see an even bigger percentage reduction in the number of flights.

At SFO, we would like to see a station right across the freeway from the international terminal and we would extend our AirTrain system to connect to the high-speed rail.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/04/29/columnists/challenges_and_opportunities/20050429_co03_challenges.txt

So again, we see that airports and high speed rail can work in concert. If they clear out the smaller planes, they gain capacity, especially runway capacity, for bigger planes. The airport makes more money from bigger planes. Rail covers the markets it can serve best, feeding the markets that airplanes serve best. SFO grows as an interchange.

United Against Southwest

2007-01-19T11:56:00.000-08:00

Interesting comment from Terry Tamminen, the former Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency and Cabinet Secretary, the Chief Policy Advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger of California.

"When the high-speed rail authority in California qualified the bond measure to put a bond on the ballot to build high-speed rail from north to south California, Herb Kelleher, who was the chief executive of Southwest, said, "We've got a $20 million war chest sitting here at Southwest to advertise against that and kill it if it ever comes in front of the voters."

Nice. Glad I always fly United. They are not against high speed rail in California, because they can see it as a partner, and could even possibly be the operator of the system. They understand that they are in the transportation business, and high speed rail has been proven worldwide to be an effective form of transportation. Instead of small, expensive planes feeding United flights, they see the worth of a network of trains feeding their planes.

Why doesn't Southwest? Why are they ready to fight? Why fly Southwest?

It's a two lane road

2006-12-31T11:25:00.000-08:00

California's freeway building boom from the 50's to 70's is best remembered, but at the same time, the state built thousands of miles of 2-lane rural expressways, those beautiful roads with gentle curves that run through the contryside. They don't stand out to observers like the freeways do, as they are at a smaller scale that doesn't dominate the landscape like freeways.

The path of a high speed train is about as wide as a two lane road. This video shows the view out of the front of a train in Germany traveling at over 180mph.

Compare that to your last drive in the country. The high speed railway, 40 feet wide, including overhead power poles, and a rural highway, two 12 foot lanes and two 8 foot bike lanes/shoulders - 40 feet. But also understand that the high speed train line can carry more people than a much wider freeway, at three times the speed.

Commuters too...

2006-12-29T11:28:00.001-08:00

Next fall the final phase of Britian's first high speed rail line will open for service, completing the line between Central London and the Channel Tunnel. Christened "High Speed 1", the line will carry both international Eurostar trains to Brussels and Paris and regional commuter trains.

While France had a line from Paris to the Channel Tunnel ready to go the day the Chunnel opened, it took England over a decade to forge their high speed connection. The problem was political support. The French line also carries trains to Brussels and northern France, making it useful to more than just travelers going to England. In England, the initial reaction to construction of a new high speed line was that it would only serve international travelers.

Politically, the decision was made to call for a high speed line that would also serve high speed regional commuter trains. This move built support for the line's construction. Three intermediate stations will serve local trips, and a new generation of high speed commuter trains will traverse the line and then fan out to a myriad of destinations in southeast England.

California can reap the same benefits. The entire English high speed line is no longer than about the distance from about San Jose to Tracy. Imagine the benefits of taking the current ACE commute service and making it three times faster.

High Speed Everywhere but Here

2006-12-27T13:31:00.000-08:00

"By 2020, the country plans to have 10,000 kilometers of high-speed rail completed, placing 90 percent of the population within only a few dozen kilometers of a high-speed rail line"

Guess which country?

You probably guessed Japan or France. Those are the two countries most closely associated with high speed rail, but neither are correct. The answer is Spain.

High speed is spreading throughout the world, including projects in countries that some people couldn't find on a map, like Morocco. Everyday, people are traveling at over 150mph in Japan, Korea, Germany, Taiwan, France, England..... Why not in California?

For more on Spain:

Technology Review article on the state of High Speed Rail in Spain
Comparision between Spain's and California's 20-year rail budgets

High Speed Rail Now 101

2006-12-26T13:45:00.000-08:00

California needs high speed rail more than most any other place on earth that does not yet have it. The charter for this blog is to provide both a visceral and technical understanding of what high speed rail is.

I hope to get you information on a regular basis as this blog unfolds. I have a large archive of information and photos that are only valuable if others can learn from them. Education- that's the goal.