CA High Speed Rail in 5 Minutes

This article describes the CA High Speed Rail project as of early February 2020. It is part of a series that provides short guides to different governmental transportation organizations in LA and CA.

Overview

The High Speed Rail project is a planned train that will travel between Northern and Southern California far more quickly than existing Amtrak train service, which can take over ten hours. The project, one of the largest construction projects in the county at present, is currently under construction in the Central Valley section of the state.

Phase 1 of the line is expected to connect San Francisco to the LA area in two hours and forty minutes, stopping along the way in central cities like Fresno and Bakersfield. (See the blue portion of the map below. )

Phase 2 will build a spur to Sacramento on the northern side and a spur to San Diego on the southern side. (See the yellow portions of the map.)

Some project timeline highlights:

• Construction began in 2015 after a groundbreaking ceremony in Fresno.
• The 2018 Business plan calls for opening an initial operating segment between San Jose and Bakersfield in 2027.
• Phase 1 between San Francisco and Anaheim is aiming for completion by 2033.
• Phase 2 extensions to Sacramento and San Diego do not have an anticipated deadline yet.

Governance

The project is being run by the California High Speed Rail Authority (CAHSRA). CAHSRA is a state agency with a single objective: building a high speed rail line. This involves planning, designing, constructing and eventually operating the line.

CaHSRA falls within the umbrella of CalSTA, the agency in the Governor’s cabinet that oversees all of the major state transportation departments, including Caltrans, CHP, and the DMV.

CAHSRA was established in 1996 by an act of the California State Legislature and in 2008 voters approved a plan for high speed rail that included a $9 billion bond to start construction.

CAHSRA has 180 staff as of April 2019, though most of the work is being performed by consultants and construction firms.

Cost and Delays

The high speed rail project is controversial largely because people disagree on whether the benefits of the project justify its significant cost. Per the project’s Draft 2020 Business Plan, Phase 1 of the project is projected to cost roughly $80 billion. There are often unpredictable cost fluctuations associated with a project of this size, duration, and complexity.

The debate over the project intensifies every year in light of the fact that the project is more expensive than initially projected and is behind schedule.

The project is behind schedule for many reasons, including problems acquiring land for construction in the Central Valley. But the main reason the overall project is delayed is because it has taken longer than anticipated to complete the environmental review process for the project. While construction is now underway in the Central Valley, other segments in the northern and southern sections of the state are still trying to get environmental clearance by 2022.

Even if the environmental hurdle is cleared by 2022, challenges remain in securing funding for final design and future construction.

But for now the project is moving ahead.

The CAHSRA releases a Business Plan every two years, and the Draft 2020 Business Plan released in February 2020 provides clues to the project’s path forward.

Debate

There is no shortage of opinions on this high-profile project.

For several years now Ralph Vartabedian of the LA Times has been a consistent critic of the project and its cost-over-runs — you can read his ongoing coverage here.

The coverage provided by the Streetsblog network offers a more positive perspective — their writers tend to place the ongoing challenges facing the project in the context of other large infrastructure projects that frequently experience delays and cost over-runs, like the lane expansion of the 405 freeway in Los Angeles.

And though it was written a few years ago, James Fallows of the Atlantic has written a terrific series of articles covering the pros and cons of High Speed Rail in California, with a table of contents here. After weighing all the evidence, Fallows comes down in favor of the project. In a recent check-in, Steve Lopez of the LA Times looks at the project with a bit more skepticism.

Why Start Building in the Middle?

One consistent question about the project pertains to why they decided to build the “middle portion” of the line in the Central Valley first. The answer: because it is easier to secure land and start construction in this relatively open area as opposed to doing the same in California’s major urban clusters. Building this middle section first arguably allows the project to make significant progress within a relatively shorter period of time.

That said, with the project beset by so many issues, some elected officials are now advocating for moving the initial funding back towards improving rail on the portions of the line near the Bay Area and the Los Angeles area, where the results will be more tangible for a larger amount of people.

Actual Travel Time

The proposed “two hours and forty minutes” time metric for a trip between San Francisco and LA can be deceptive.

Your door-to-door trip from your home in one city to your final destination in the other city is likely to run much longer when you factor in getting to the station (in traffic), arriving early enough so you don’t miss your train, getting through security, waiting in line to board…..and then waiting to off-board, getting out of the destination train station, and traveling to your final destination (in traffic).

When all is said and done, the total High Speed Rail travel time will be closer to five or six hours for most door-door trips from the Bay Area to the LA area.

High Speed Rail vs. Hyperloop

It’s also helpful to understand that when Elon Musk’s Hyperloop team describes a potential 36 minute trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles, they are talking about a very different project than High Speed Rail. (And note the Hyperloop will also have the same 2–4 hour travel time addition for door-door trips.)

The Hyperloop, assuming it even gets built, would be a direct trip between San Francisco and Los Angeles. High Speed Rail is trying to do much more than that — it is trying to link cities throughout the state into a series of more densely populated and economically vibrant nodes around each station. Stations in cities like Fresno and Bakersfield aren’t just for transportation- it is envisioned that these cities could also grow vertically in a more environmentally friendly way around train stations instead of only sprawling horizontally.

Despite its many setbacks, High Speed Rail remains an exciting, ambitious project. Skepticism of the project is warranted, as is hope and conviction.

Go here for the main page of this transportation series.