California High Speed Rail Thread

[edale]

Originally Posted by LAsam

If you were to wave a magic wand and have all this work completed, we would now live in a world where San Fran, Sacramento, LA, San Diego, and Las Vegas are all connected by HSR. Looking at the map, I struggle to see another city that makes sense to connect to this system via further expansion. Does anyone see the system moving further beyond the existing cities?

It'd be cool to see HSR connect to Palm Springs/Coachella Valley. From there, I guess it could theoretically get extended to Phoenix, but that might be pushing it a bit given the distance and literal nothingness in between the low desert CA cities and Phoenix.

[LAsam]

^ Would be nice to be able to access the Coachella Valley via rail. Probably could be handled via electrification and expansion of Metrolink.

[TWAK]

I think continuing HSR up the Valley Subdivision would be good and service the population centers. It could end in Redding and link up with HSR in Oregon if they ever have plans on doing it for the PNW. Electrifying the other lines that aren't upgraded to HSR would be a good trade-off.
There's the ROW along 5 too, but again the same issue is there's just not as many population centers.

[LAsam]

Originally Posted by TWAK

I think continuing HSR up the Valley Subdivision would be good and service the population centers. It could end in Redding and link up with HSR in Oregon if they ever have plans on doing it for the PNW. Electrifying the other lines that aren't upgraded to HSR would be a good trade-off.
There's the ROW along 5 too, but again the same issue is there's just not as many population centers.

That makes sense. If the PNW were to create a HSR connecting Vancouver to Portland we could eventually link that up with CAHSR.

[mr1138]

Originally Posted by numble

The plan is for one-seat rides from Union Station to Las Vegas if/when they ever build the section from Union Station to Palmdale.

Very cool! Thanks for the information. The last time I checked, the Phase 2 alternatives between LA and San Diego are still very preliminary, but most went near Rancho Cucamonga, so I would imagine they will want to link the two systems there as well when the time comes.

Originally Posted by LAsam

If you were to wave a magic wand and have all this work completed, we would now live in a world where San Fran, Sacramento, LA, San Diego, and Las Vegas are all connected by HSR. Looking at the map, I struggle to see another city that makes sense to connect to this system via further expansion. Does anyone see the system moving further beyond the existing cities?

I recall that way back when Brightline was being planned as DesertXpress, the company was looking at the possibility of Vegas as a HSR hub. The basic concept was that, since ROW acquisition may be easier in the desert, or where the federal gov. owns the land, Vegas is well positioned to offer possible extentions to Phoenix and even SLC. I don't know if this is still Brightline's plan though.

It makes me curious what an LA to Phoenix travel time linking through Vegas would be. A southern route out of San Diego would be more direct, but I bet would have some serious engineering challenges. It's possible Brightline could complete a Vegas to Phoenix link much sooner.

[sammyg]

Originally Posted by LAsam

If you were to wave a magic wand and have all this work completed, we would now live in a world where San Fran, Sacramento, LA, San Diego, and Las Vegas are all connected by HSR. Looking at the map, I struggle to see another city that makes sense to connect to this system via further expansion. Does anyone see the system moving further beyond the existing cities?

HSR to Tahoe/Reno would be fantastic, or as fast as you could get in the mountains. It would require a lot of tunneling.

[curt-pdx]

OK - my newest favorite youtube since Drone Zone (rip):
Jason Dronin Around

The only thing that could make these EVEN BETTER is a map at the beginning with the portion of the route covered highlighted, and an estimate of how many minutes that bit of the route would flash by in 2030 when you're seeing it in a train.

Thank you Jason!

was having difficultly embedding the video, but link may work:
https://youtu.be/RRIgE6ajWYU?si=JBv6S7PzdvTANUZK

[Busy Bee]

Any chance this is the same person that did Drone Zone? I wish we knew the full story there. Was it "hacked" or was it some sort of legal thing vis a vis CHSRA?

[craigs]

Originally Posted by curt-pdx

was having difficultly embedding the video, but link may work:
https://youtu.be/RRIgE6ajWYU?si=JBv6S7PzdvTANUZK

Here you go:

• Video Link

It's a cool video.

[curt-pdx]

Thank you for the assist craigs!

Yeah, not sure on the full story of Drone Zone, or if Jason is the same person (very different "style" of video though from what I remember).

Also meant to shout out to The Four Foot - who ultimately also couldn't commit to the stretched budget cycle build schedule of the CHSR.

It IS reassuring tho' seeing right-of-way and structures ready for track when that money gets released. Build it already legislature . . .

[curt-pdx]

JasonDroninAround has had a few more great segments in his series for a ground level look - sorry about the broken links.

My NEXT amazing find is the few-thousand-foot look at the route - 270 miles in 17 minutes - from a small plane. Thank you Wolficorn for the ridealong:

• Video Link

[Busy Bee]

Just got around to watching this. The 3x speed flyover really shows off those graceful sweeping radius curves necessary to achieve 200+ mph. Great video.

[Gantz]

Originally Posted by sammyg

HSR to Tahoe/Reno would be fantastic, or as fast as you could get in the mountains. It would require a lot of tunneling.

That segment would probably cost $200 a ticket.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by sammyg

HSR to Tahoe/Reno would be fantastic, or as fast as you could get in the mountains. It would require a lot of tunneling.

Before pouring much headache worrying about getting to Reno, lets first get to Sacramento.