Quote:
Originally Posted by green_man
Is the advantage of the SR14 alignment primarily financial? I could see it adding more time to the trip, but OTOH I have no idea if trains are prohibited from running at full speed through tunnels, so maybe it balances out.
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Several advantages: But mainly, Santa Clarita
could have been a useful transfer point/hub for this part of the region.
Not a major destination or city, no, but a Santa Barbara-Ventura rail link is a long-term (and interesting) possibility that could link Amtrak's San Joaquins and Coast Starlight, not to mention Metrolink.
Essentially, if they'd simply gone mostly at grade along SR-14 and avoided tunneling under the mountains, it would have been cheaper definitely but also lined them up to combine the utility of this program with local/regional projects (eg. the Sepulvada Pass could have been heavy rail to extend Amtrak/Metrolink to LAX through the Valley and then be positioned in such a way so as to take advantage of the north Harbor Subdivision to reach LAUS).
You get:
1) Direct access between Bay Area for San Joaquins service to LAUS
2) New alternate routes for Metrolink from the Valley to LAUS (allowing improvements on the Burbank-LAUS corridor, which will be neccesary for HSR anyways)
3) Additional service at LAX and a "West" hub there for transfers to other parts of the region and a "North" hub at Santa Clarita
Everyone says this is crazy/unpractical, but I disagree. Along with this routing -- and a Metrolink/Amtrak extension across the Tehachapis to Bakersfield in the
interim, until Palmdale is connected for HSR -- this could have been a faster
interim manner to get CAHSR to LAUS for 1) minimal cost and 2) with enormous local benefits, that would increase as more direct routing is made to bypass Santa Clarita eventually (ie. tunnels under the mountains) and follow the alignment south towards Burbank.
Essentially, I think the program for LA should have been "Caltrain Electrification On Steroids."
Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesinclair
On google earth, on the top bar, the 7th button from the left lets you choose which date you view the image.
This allows you to do two things:
1. Identify the exact date youre looking at
2. In some cases, view newer images than the default. Many times the default image will be older because it is better (ie, clouds or bad shadows).
You can see all of Fresno as taken on 2/18/2018
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Yeah, I've been using the new web app, and I couldn't locate it for the life of me. I'll take another look.
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