California High-Speed Trains: Pacheco Pass

This 3D animation clip shows a conceptual design for high-speed trains along the alternative route through Pacheco Pass, California.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• chsra
• California
• high-speed
• rail
• trains
• bullet
• shinkansen
• tgv
• pacheco
• pass
• altamont
• virtual tour

[Modeltrainguy]

As much as Californians want High Speed Rail...I hope it happens soon. Not JUST for California, but for America as a whole. Look at other countries that have HSR:

Japan - The size of California.

South Korea - About the same size as Minnesota.

Spain - Slightly more than twice the size of Oregon.

France - slightly less than double the size of Colorado.

Taiwan - Slightly larger than the states of Maryland & Delaware combined.

Think about it...THOUSANDS of American jobs!

[Nezahualcoyotl7]

California is the best State!

[th3gtr0]

@GenmaSaotome I am also a railfan.

[th3gtr0]

@GenmaSaotome in the state, the lowest standard of living, the highest poverty rate, [and] the lowest educational attainment. Our problems are directly related to the lack of diversity of our industrial base in the San Joaquin Valley, and high-speed rail is essential for changing our economic base."

[th3gtr0]

@GenmaSaotome experience double-digit population growth in the coming decades. High-Speed Rail will help these relatively isolated economies tap into the large economies of the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, Sacramento area, and San Diego area. In fact, Merced Mayor Bill Spriggs recently commented at a California High-Speed Rail Authority public comment session that, "Merced county and the rest of the San Joaquin Valley habitually have the highest unemployment rates

[th3gtr0]

@GenmaSaotome major metropolitan areas, which have moderate to high population densities. It turns out that "corridors of no more than 500 miles constituted half of all flights and carried 30 percent of all passengers . . . [and that] the metro Los Angeles-San Francisco corridor, stretching 347 miles, is the second busiest corridor in the country" (Tomer & Puentes, 2009).

The California High-Speed Rail System will serve major population centers in the Central Valley that are expected to

[th3gtr0]

@GenmaSaotome line by 2020. Although 50 km seems a lot, I believe the expansion of local rail lines that will serve as the spokes of a hub-and-spoke system are also part of the plan. However, population density should not be the only factor when determining the feasibility of a high-speed rail line. Busy trans-regional corridors between centers of economic activity are good potential routes for a high-speed rail line. Centers of economic activity tend to be centers of large cities and

[th3gtr0]

@GenmaSaotome Actually, California's population density is slightly greater than Spain's population density; it is 234 people/mile^2 and 229 people/mile^2, respectively. Spain has a high-speed rail system currently operating between Seville, Madrid, and Barcelona. By mileage, it is the largest high-speed rail system in Europe. The Spanish government has announced plans to invest in five new high-speed rail lines and have 90% of the Spanish population live within 51 km of a high-speed rail

[GenmaSaotome]

High speed rail makes no sense for California ... and having no sense at all, we Californians agreed to sell billions in bonds for this silly idea. Sure it looks great (I'm a railfan, I'd love to see it -- somewhere else) but when viewed from either a cost or transportation perspective, it's a very stupid idea for California.

[GenmaSaotome]

Ignore the comparison of size, compare population density instead. California and Japan may have about the same area, but population density in California is only 29% of Japan's; Minnesota's pop. density is 10% of S. Korea ... and on it goes. Rail makes sense in some situations and no sense in others. In the US it makes no sense outside of the Boston - Washinton DC corridor. And I'm a speaking as a lifelong rail fan.