Who’s Slowing Down a High-Speed Train in California?
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 06.13.07 | 4:20 PM ET
Photo by Oh, to be able to hop on a high-speed train like this French TGV to breeze through California. High-speed rail has serious support among the public and in the state legislature, according to a recent story in San Diego CityBeat. So who’s standing in the way? According to Steven T. Jones’s report, it’s none other than Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who in the case of high-speed rail really does seem to be The Terminator. Writes Jones: “While posing for the April 16 cover of Newsweek with the headline ‘Save the Planet—or Else’ and touting himself around the world as an environmental leader, Schwarzenegger has quietly sought to kill—or at least delay beyond his term—high-speed rail.”
Interestingly, Jones cites sources who say that neither oil companies nor auto manufacturers oppose a high-speed train in California.
Schwarzenegger has delayed a $10 billion bond issue to build the Los Angeles-San Francisco leg, most recently pushing it back from 2006 to 2008 because, according to Jones, he feared it would hinder another bond measure for freeway construction. Now he wants to push it back even further. Jones’s story not only takes Schwarzenegger to task but makes a strong case for the project, invoking the success of the TGV in France.
He writes:
In France, the TGV line from Paris to Lyon connects the country’s two most culturally important cities in the same way that Los Angeles would be linked to San Francisco—from one downtown core to the other—allowing for easy day trips and eco-friendly weekend jaunts. Advocates for high-speed rail say it’s an essential component of California going green and the only realistic way to meet the ambitious climate change targets approved last year in Assembly Bill 32.
Several years ago, after enjoying so many train trips abroad, I took the Amtrak from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area, eager to see how my home state’s rail system stacked up. I arrived a good five or six hours late thanks to numerous inexplicable delays and had to cancel dinner plans with a friend. Amtrak workers on board shrugged and said, “What do you expect?”
So, sadly, I’ve just about given up on trains in California until big changes are made.
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
Joseph Snyder 06.14.07 | 2:03 PM ET
California must build an HSR. The air service must be phased out for environmental reasons, and the rising cost/dwindling availability of oil.
The public wants HSR.
Jack Snyder
Shepherdstown, WV
TambourineMan 06.15.07 | 2:43 PM ET
I’m with you, Jim. Until a high-speed line is built, I’ll stick with my car. Amtrak is a mess. The congestion caused by sharing track with freight trains means you’ll never arrive anywhere on time…or even close to it. In your case, 5 to 6 hours of numerous inexplicable delays.
Jim Benning 06.15.07 | 3:05 PM ET
And if I understand it correctly, TambourineMan, the freight trains always get priority.
That’s certainly the way it seemed to be on my trip.
What are we, chattel?
beserious 07.12.07 | 4:34 PM ET
I think none of you guys get it at all. An SF-LA line would take a few cars off the road…total waste of money, just a slow I-5 replacement.
We already have airplanes/airports for that.
What we need is SD-LA, LA-Riverside and SF-Sac and SF-SJ lines, thats where all the highways/cars go! In other words, just turn Caltrain, Altamont, Metrolink, Coaster into high speed rail, no fuss, no land grab, no billion dollar tunnels through mountains (San Gabriel and Coast Mtns).
We have nothing that can go between these cities in half an hour currently. BTW, it would cost like 1/3 the price of the whole system too! Who needs SF-LA?
Clyde Rath 07.12.07 | 4:40 PM ET
You can thank the rail companies for most of the opposition. In the 1800’s they were given huge land grants to complete the transcontennial railroad and have profited greatly from it. They are not humored by those of use who wish to travel on their rails and decrease their profit stream. I’ve ridden Amtrak many times and frankly they are frustrated because they get no support from Congress, the riders or the public. Their lucky if they get enough money to buy bedsheets for the sleeper car. Rail service is truly the illigitimate child of US transportation.
Joseph Snyder 07.13.07 | 5:45 PM ET
BE SERIOUS is the one who fails to ‘get it.’ The point of HSR is to begin to get rid of domestic air service, so it is logical to begin with SF-LA, one of the busiest air markets in the world.
We face dwinding oil supplies and global climate change due to massive human-generated CO2 pollution. ALL airlines—domestic and international will be replaced within the next 20 years. Fast trains on land, fast ships on the seas….
Jack Snyder
Shepherdstown, WV
Joe 08.03.07 | 6:58 AM ET
I am against the HSR proposal as it stands, and I’ll tell u why. It is a dumb way to go about things, when there is a better way. Such an expensive project should be useful. Cut out the LA-SF part, and it will cost 1/3, it will be done 5 years earlier, and carry 95% of the traffic. Then I will vote for it.
Nobody commutes LA-SF anyway, plus there is something that already exists called an airplane. Get commuters off the road is the key. LA-SD, LA-Riverside, SF-San Jose, SF-Sac will get commuters off the road.
Joseph Snyder 08.03.07 | 3:15 PM ET
Peak Oil and the evolving environmental catastrophe require us to phase out domestic US air service by 2020, if not sooner.
It will take the USA 25 years to fully complete intercity HSR service, using mostly Interstate highway medians and former rail rights-of-way in the cities (as in Europe).
California may be the first segment completed, LA-SF and to Sacramento.
There is NO DOUBT this system will be heavily used, and quickly justify its cost. As a former Sacramento resident, I know this is needed and support it fully….
Jack Snyder
Shepherdstown, WV
Nancy 11.04.07 | 9:35 PM ET
European fast rail amazed us on a recent trip. We returned home to So Cal and wondered why the richest country on earth is riding in the slow lane. Apparently in the 1920s the oil/car industry was given the green light instead of efficient trains. In today’s Parade magazine (Nov. 4, 07) the front page article is about American trains and how they can be saved. I understand that money and greed generally run a system but the lack of trains, especially in congested Calif, is ridiculous. People need to writeto their congressional representatives and tell them to get the trains on track!
offshore outsourcing 06.18.08 | 2:58 PM ET
I had dreamed about a TGV in every country ever since I was in one when I visited France. Why can’t we have these lines at least between the major cities?