Posted on 04/11/2007 3:54:53 AM PDT by BenLurkin
PALMDALE - Despite declining support from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a questionable financial future, plans for a high-speed rail line connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco are continuing.
Area residents may have their say on issues they would like to see studied in the environmental impact report for the rail line between Los Angeles and Palmdale during a public scoping meeting on the project Thursday.
Twin meetings will run from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Palmdale City Council Chambers, 38300 Sierra Highway, in the Palmdale Civic Center.
Studies on the Los Angeles-to-Palmdale segment and on other segments of the 700-mile-long route will include preliminary engineering designs and assessments of the environmental effects of construction, maintenance and operation of the proposed rail line.
An environmental impact report and study were completed for the entire route in 2005 as the first phase of environmental review for the project. The route between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, with a stop in Palmdale, was selected during this process after much debate.
Project-level environmental studies of the individual rail line segments are the second phase of the review process.
The proposed Antelope Valley alignment roughly would follow Highway 58 from Bakersfield to Mojave, then would run south along the Union Pacific railroad tracks through Lancaster, Palmdale and Soledad Canyon. A map released by high-speed rail officials indicted they are studying the area around Soledad Canyon for alternate routes. Copies of the notices of preparation and notices of intent regarding the state high-speed rail's Palmdale-Los Angeles route environmental study may be viewed online at www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov.
Legislation passed last year requires a $10 billion bond measure to fund the rail line to go before voters in November 2008.
(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...
So, they haven’t tossed enough money on LA’s subway system?
I guess the contractors have to be fed so the Sacto bureaucrats can get nice fat retirement jobs.
As for mag-lev, the French have shown that conventional trains can still be quite competitive for a fraction of the cost of maglevs.
BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) still hasn’t reached San Jose, either.
I thought it did years ago? I ussed to live there, maybe it does?
Oh, I get it. They weren’t building a 700 mile fence to keep illegals out, they were building a 700 mile high-speed rail to get them here faster.
BART still hasn’t reached San Jose.
I used to drive in from my cave in the Mayacama range and eat free food in the San Jose bars on Friday nights. Good stuff, and a nice change from scorpion tails and manzanita salad.
Has BART been taken over by the winos, bums and socialist mayors yet?
Only a government agency would build a 700 mile rail line between two cities that are only 400 miles apart.
LOL!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Or better yet (and cheaper), build a separate high-speed freeway alongside I-15 and raise the limit to 100 mph.
Sure they can build a 700 mile rail system but not a 700 mile border fence.
Birds will die
The only path that’s even reasonably flat between LA and SF is along Route 101 by the coast, over some of the most expensive real estate in the world (Malibu, Santa Barbara, etc.). If they are planning to build this train through Palmdale that’s fine, but I wonder what they plan to do about the 6,000 foot tall Sierra Nevada standing in their way? Right now the train stops in LA and they send buses over the mountains to Bakersfield, where the passengers board the train to continue going north. I must be missing something here.
Seems you are not missing anything except perhaps this:
Can you say "long, expensive tunnel"? A tunnel that will require constant on-going maintenance, an expensive, complicated ventilation system, and a "bureauocracy-in-perpetuity" to "manage" it.
But don't worry about a lot of people getting killed in there due to an earthquake-induced collapse, because there will not be many people who will use it anyway.
Well, according to the article, they want to go through the Tehachapi pass from Bakersfield to Mohave, across Antelope Valley, and down Soledad, where the current freight rails run.
Right now the train stops in LA and they send buses over the mountains to Bakersfield, where the passengers board the train to continue going north. I must be missing something here.
Currently, the owners of the right of way (UP? Southern Pac?) don't want to let Amtrak use their rails, IIRC. I don't remember if that involved losing freight routes, or upgrading the track for higher speed. I assume the passenger rail proposal is to build a parallel high speed rail beside the freight line.
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