Quote:
Originally Posted by plutonicpanda
I really think they should work on a new HSR line through the Cajon Pass first. I hope I am wrong but I predict this route will see weak ridership stopping the route in Victorville. Maybe this will speed up construction of HDC freeway as it would make more sense to build it all at once.
|
To my knowledge they are trying to align with HDC freeway to get to Palmdale. Long term they wanted to use the CHSR ROW from Palmdale down to LA. I don't think Cajon Pass has ever been in scope for this project due to cost.
The Virgin route seems highly dependent on CHSR for its success. The use case is very weak for Victorville. At least Palmdale has the option of switching to Metrolink. At that point it really isn't a time saver. I think without CHSR build out in SoCal Virgin Trains is going to struggle.
Now if BNSF, UP, MetroLink, Amtrak and Virgin Trains pooled resources on Cajon Pass to secure two higher speed and capacity ROWs maybe Cajon Pass comes into play. I haven't heard of any serious proposal for Cajon pass of any of those. If you have any info of Cajon pass being looked at I would love to read about it.