In a 2019 blog post, transit advocate Alon Levy concluded, “The 2:40 LA-SF time is completely impossible under Pacheco-Tehachapi as currently designed with all the route compromises that have been done.” (Pacheco-Tehachapi refers to the authority’s plan to build rail tunnels under the Pacheco Pass and Tehachapi Mountains, respectively.) This problem has long been evident to skeptics and supporters. The ballot measure also set a 30-minute maximum travel time between San Francisco and San Jose that won’t be met due to the shared track. Thus, it is unlikely the California High-Speed Rail Authority can meet the promise of a 2-hour-40-minute trip between San Francisco and Los Angeles that was stated in Proposition 1A (2008). In total, over 20% of the Los Angeles to San Francisco route is now expected to be restricted to half-speed performance. Today’s high-speed trains have a maximum speed of 220 miles per hour on dedicated high-speed track, but on blended portions of track, the maximum speed needs to be limited to 110 miles per hour, primarily for safety reasons that are discussed below. Photos: Murray/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom, Oliver Contreras / Pool via CNP / SplashNews/Newscom, Ken Cantrell/ZUMA Press/Newscom, Gary Reyes/TNS/Newscom, Photo 98224660 © Blackzheep |, Photo 136151613 © Cougarsan | Dreamstime.As confirmed by a new California High-Speed Rail Authority Environmental Impact Report (EIR), at least 91 miles of the 438-mile San Francisco to Los Angeles route will not be dedicated to high-speed rail but instead shared with commuter rail operators.Īccording to the recent report and prior Environmental Impact Reports, the 77-mile portion of the system connecting San Francisco to Gilroy will be shared with Caltrain commuter service and the 14-mile portion connecting Los Angeles and Burbank will be shared with the region’s Metrolink trains.Īlthough this “blended system” approach has long been discussed by those involved in the state’s high-speed rail project, in part because it reduces construction costs, sharing track with commuter rail means that the service billed as high-speed rail will run more slowly than originally promised to voters and that high-speed trains will run through grade-level railroad crossings. Music: 'Hall of the Mountain King' by Kevin MacLeod, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. As the years dragged on, the cost ballooned to $100 billion at one point and the project had to be scaled back significantly to a shorter section between Merced and Bakersfield in California's Central Valley.Įven with all the setbacks, including a lack of private investment that champions of the California rail line were always banking on, local California politicians continue to push for federal dollars.ĭuring the 2020 presidential campaign, Joe Biden promised to make sure that America had the ' cleanest, safest, and fastest rail system in the world.' Buttigieg and Congress should pay more attention to California's costly disaster than a map circulating on Twitter. When funding for the initial part of the California High-Speed Rail line was voted on in 2008, it was supposed to link Los Angeles with San Francisco for about $33 billion and take about a decade to complete. The Cato Institute's Randal O'Toole estimates that based on the costs and setbacks of the California project, building 8,600 miles of high-speed rail would have cost 'well over $1 trillion dollars.'īuttigieg's definition of 'dreaming big' is applying 20th-century technology to 21st-century problems. The money went to upgrading Amtrak instead. In 2009, President Barack Obama proposed building 8,600 miles of high-speed rail and received $10.1 billion from Congress toward that goal. 'I want her so fucking much,' which was accompanied by a picture of Twu's map, was how one viral tweet summed up the prevailing mood back in January of 2020.īut anyone taking the promise of high-speed rail seriously should consider California's disastrous attempt to build a bullet train in recent years-the project is unfinished and over budget, and one of its key political backers has turned against it.īuilding high-speed rail requires bulldozing neighborhoods and disrupting communities, and would be a drain on a state's finances if completed. The map was the subject of a recent Vox article that was tweeted out by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. A map by graphic designer and transit advocate Alfred Twu, featuring possible routes for bullet train lines crisscrossing the U.S., has been making the rounds on Twitter. With a Democrat in the White House and a $2.2 trillion infrastructure plan on the table, excitement about high-speed rail is on the rise again.

California high speed rail route