California High Speed Rail Thread

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by hughfb3

I just looked up Horseheads on the map as well. The article says “upstate New York.” Honest question, is everything outside of New York City considered “upstate?” I would consider this south New York or central New York, but I don’t know the terms.

Yes. Everything north of the Cuomo bridge is upstate. Everything west of the Hudson is the West Coast.

[TowerDude]

[Busy Bee]

Upstate is where the bubble boy lives.

[JManc]

I'm from Central NY; the upstate/ downstate divide starts at Westchester County.

[Innsertnamehere]

i.e. basically anything not in the NY metro area.

Horseheads / Elmira is in the "Southern Tier" area of Upstate NY as well, which is a bit more geographically specific of a descriptor if not as well known. Describes basically the mountainous areas of NY along I-86 close to the PA border. Corning, Elmira, Binghampton, Etc.

[hughfb3]

Nandert has a new video about planning future transit projects. There is an interesting section where he talks about CAHSR and Burbank’s possible airport station and/or Downtown station and some of the mistakes they may have made.

https://youtu.be/XSLvtfI5LA4?si=rmyzId0qxCznEMJF

People can talk all day about how California is creating a boondoggle with CAHSR, but the ONLY reason Upstate NY is getting this investment in a manufacturing facility and the only reason Brightline is building the west coast version as true high speed rail and not higher speed diesel like their Florida project is because of California’s bold action willing to be the first. Other states will build HSR for cheaper after learning from CA’s experience, but will still talk about CA’s as a boondoggle. Sure there are mistakes politically and physically, but I applauded the team and Mr Brian/CEO for all the work they’ve done so far. As he said on one of his final interviews as CEO, “it’s no longer a matter of ‘if’ we will get HSR, it’s a matter of ‘when’”. A psychological hump was a huge hurdle to cross.

Thank you for your responses to my inquiry above. I get it now and I’ve searched for a relevant update topic to bring this thread back on course and that prior subject is now complete for me.

[UrbanImpact]

Originally Posted by hughfb3

Nandert has a new video about planning future transit projects. There is an interesting section where he talks about CAHSR and Burbank’s possible airport station and/or Downtown station and some of the mistakes they may have made.

https://youtu.be/XSLvtfI5LA4?si=rmyzId0qxCznEMJF

People can talk all day about how California is creating a boondoggle with CAHSR, but the ONLY reason Upstate NY is getting this investment in a manufacturing facility and the only reason Brightline is building the west coast version as true high speed rail and not higher speed diesel like their Florida project is because of California’s bold action willing to be the first. Other states will build HSR for cheaper after learning from CA’s experience, but will still talk about CA’s as a boondoggle. Sure there are mistakes politically and physically, but I applauded the team and Mr Brian/CEO for all the work they’ve done so far. As he said on one of his final interviews as CEO, “it’s no longer a matter of ‘if’ we will get HSR, it’s a matter of ‘when’”. A psychological hump was a huge hurdle to cross.

Thank you for your responses to my inquiry above. I get it now and I’ve searched for a relevant update topic to bring this thread back on course and that prior subject is now complete for me.

FYI regarding electrification, a majority of the Florida route is not owned by Brightline and shared with freight (often two box cars high).

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by UrbanImpact

shared with freight (often two box cars high).

Double-stack containers is not an impediment to electrification from an engineering perspective.

[HusBy]

Maybe this has been discussed here before, but does anyone know how CAHSR integrates into the newly electrified CalTrain?

What work does CAHSR have to do to utilize the CalTrain corridor? Are they laying new track, new stations, etc?

Also, wondering if there are any good maps that are tracking the progress of the various segments, similar to this map for DTLA development.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.045706,-..._ep=EgoyMDI0MDkwOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Would be interesting to have a map showing the progress of each portion, or even specific parts of the segments like the various bridges, viaducts, grade separations that have been done or are in progress.

[Busy Bee]

^Start with the CHSRA website. Pretty much anything you'd want to know is on there. There's also a couple channels on Youtube with enthusiast explainers, updates and drone videos of under construction and completed sections and structures.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

^Start with the CHSRA website. Pretty much anything you'd want to know is on there. There's also a couple channels on Youtube with enthusiast explainers, updates and drone videos of under construction and completed sections and structures.

He could also go to the SF Bay Area transportation thread, where the shared route with Caltrain has been discussed extensively.

[Busy Bee]

^ that too

[hughfb3]

Originally Posted by UrbanImpact

FYI regarding electrification, a majority of the Florida route is not owned by Brightline and shared with freight (often two box cars high).

Brightline as an entity does not own the tracks, but the parent company of Brightline does. Brightline is a real estate development tool disguised as a transit project for parents "Florida East Coast Industries" and grandparents "Fortress Investment Group." They could have made a completely electrified corridor; but did not need to, as there is no clean air transportation mandate in Florida like there is in California.

[veep]

Originally Posted by HusBy

Maybe this has been discussed here before, but does anyone know how CAHSR integrates into the newly electrified CalTrain?

What work does CAHSR have to do to utilize the CalTrain corridor? Are they laying new track, new stations, etc?

Also, wondering if there are any good maps that are tracking the progress of the various segments, similar to this map for DTLA development.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.045706,-..._ep=EgoyMDI0MDkwOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Would be interesting to have a map showing the progress of each portion, or even specific parts of the segments like the various bridges, viaducts, grade separations that have been done or are in progress.

CAHSR will run on the already existing Caltrain tracks. There is one new station coming at the Salesforce Transit Center in Downtown San Francisco that will be the northern terminus for both Caltrain and CAHSR. There will also be two other shared stations at Millbrae and San Jose.

San Jose and Millbrae stations will have to have their platforms raised to support level boarding. The underground train platform at Salesforce Transit Center isn't built yet, but when it is, it will also have high platforms to support level boarding. Caltrain will have two sets of doors on each train to serve both high and low platform stations.

[plinko]

I'm sure pictures of these have been posted before, but here are a few of the viaducts and bridges around Fresno as I was driving through about a month ago...


IMG_1769 by Michael Stroh, on Flickr


IMG_1770 by Michael Stroh, on Flickr


IMG_1775 by Michael Stroh, on Flickr


IMG_1779 by Michael Stroh, on Flickr


IMG_1783 by Michael Stroh, on Flickr

[202_Cyclist]

Thank you for posting these photos. I would expect that as more people see the actual construction and infrastructure, support for this investment in modern, efficient, transportation will continue to increase.

[38 Geary]

Nice photos. Thanks for the update!

[LAsam]

I drove up the 99 a couple of months ago and it was interesting seeing all the infrastructure around Fresno, first hand. Feels very abstract down her in Southern California until you see it in-person.

[HusBy]

Originally Posted by veep

CAHSR will run on the already existing Caltrain tracks. There is one new station coming at the Salesforce Transit Center in Downtown San Francisco that will be the northern terminus for both Caltrain and CAHSR. There will also be two other shared stations at Millbrae and San Jose.

San Jose and Millbrae stations will have to have their platforms raised to support level boarding. The underground train platform at Salesforce Transit Center isn't built yet, but when it is, it will also have high platforms to support level boarding. Caltrain will have two sets of doors on each train to serve both high and low platform stations.

Thanks veep. I've looked into it a bit more, but I still don't have a great picture of how much of the new electrification infrastructure will be used or needs to be modified to accommodate CAHSR, and how much work in adding passing tracks, etc., will need to be done.

[HusBy]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

^Start with the CHSRA website. Pretty much anything you'd want to know is on there. There's also a couple channels on Youtube with enthusiast explainers, updates and drone videos of under construction and completed sections and structures.

Thanks, I did go a bit deeper there which was helpful. Their maps could be much better though.