The high-speed rail bill -- what the heck happened?

Even as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger keeps track of just how badly our state Legislators have blown the budget deadline (56 days and counting), he's ignoring one of his own, Steve Hymon, our Road Sage, reports:

A deadline has expired for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign a bill, AB 3034, that would have put in place financial guidelines for the $9.95-billion bond on the November ballot for a high-speed rail system in California.

Legislators spent most of the summer squabbling over the proposed route for the bullet train and other perks for their own districts they wanted in the bill. By the time they sent it to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for his signature, Schwarzenegger had already said he wasn't signing any more bills until the state's budget shortfall was solved.

Quentin Kopp, the chair of the California High Speed Rail Authority, put out a statement today saying the authority would adopt most of the guidelines anyway. ... The most interesting part, I think, is that he reiterates his promise of the train taking only 2 1/2 hours to run between L.A. and San Francisco.

Steve does the math and comes up with an average speed of 140 mpg for the hypothetical train. (And asks for readers to check his work in case he somehow miscalculated.) The rest of the post -- and lots more transportation news -- can be read in the Bottleneck Blog.

-- Veronique de Turenne

Comments

[Tom West]

Adam's made a slight mistake - European highspeed railways typcially run at 300km/hr (186mph), not 300mph. The latest high-speed train from Alstom can do 360km/hr (220mph), which means an average speed of 140mph is belivable. (Though I'm wondering what the station dwell time is... hopefully not the 20mins of Amtrak, but the 2mins of Europe).

[Adam]

Regarding comments posted earlier about MAGLEV -
All European fast rail systems run on rail, not MAGLEV, and they run at speeds similar to those proposed for the California High Speed Train (300mph). They run on specially designed tracks which provide for a safer and smoother ride than conventional tracks. There is no need to build MAGLEV.

[Mark]

We all hope that California will start building a MAGLEV and it can travel with speed more than 200MPH ~ 450 km/h... and later linking that MAGLEV to more big American cities...

BUILD MAGLEV PLEASE!! NOT CONVENTIONAL RAIL! CONVENTIONAL RAIL IS USED FOR FREIGHT Transportation! MAGLEV is for passengers.

China will start building another 200 km MAGLEV line in 2010 and completed by 2014. Link:

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqAfhOzHvrCCKkVe2B_kti5TqAxA

[Shem]

The United States will have a national high speed rail network in place by the year 2025, if there is a nation left to build it.

Those people who are against the trains simply do not understand the issues surrounding transportation and development in America and how dramatically the economic formulas used to dictate America's development models are about to change.

Before WWII America was divided into basically two worlds, big cities and rural towns. There were no suburbs, at least not like the ones we have today. After WWII this all changed. The US government subsidized housing for all returning veterans (or more correctly, the white one's) and built them all in neighborhoods that extended away from the cities. Then the government spent hundreds of billions and even trillions of dollars over the next five decades building ever extending highways and freeways and America invented suburban sprawl.

This development pattern worked under two conditions: lots of land, and an abundance of dirt cheap oil.

Those days are now gone forever. World oil production has peaked and has started to drop slightly in the last two years. OPEC oil reserves are overstated due to trade agreements that allow each member nation a market share dependant on their stated oil reserves. World oil production will decrease at 2-5% each year while world oil demand is increasing at 2% per year. By 2015, this will equate to a 33% disparity between oil production and demand.

The suburban model of development is going to completely die by 2015 and Americans will come running back to the cities we abandoned after WWII.

Today....already....every major US airline, with the exception of SouthWest is in bankruptcy, and the only reason SW airlines isn't yet is because they loaded up on oil shares several years ago and are still paying $50/barrell. The airlines haven't been able to increase fares relative to rising fuel costs simply because most people don't have to fly most of the time and if it's too expensive....they won't. Therefore, at this point it's a game of which airline can endure the biggest loses and be the last one standing. Once the competition is eliminated they will finally be able to reduce flights and raise prices.

At this point, flying will be too expensive for everyone except the weathly. And as this process happens over the next 10-15 years, the political will of the nation will build and eventually a national high speed rail network will be built. But of course, this is contingent on whether or not we've gone to nuclear war with China over the remaining oil reserves, which is entirely possible.

[Stuart KD]

The Germans (Siemens) built a high speed rail in two and half years from Beijing to the seaside city of Tianjin. That is the distance roughly from San Bernardino to Santa Monica. The train travels at 220 mph and can cover the entire 75 mile route, along with four stops, in 30 minutes. The train uses steel wheels and a specifically-designed rail track, but it is the advanced technology that allows the train to run smooth, fast and comfortably.

We are falling behind technologically and as a civilization. All because people want to cling to the present and the past. If we do not support high speed transit in the state, we will become part of the past.

It takes nearly two hours to drive from San Bernardino to Santa Monica during rush hour. The Chinese are traveling the same distance in 30 minutes on a futuristic mass transit system. Shall we lead, follow or get left behind?