Now this is a topic I have heard about my entire life. I remember my mother telling me about it when I was a small child. Ever since, the story has periodically resurfaced in various guises.
However, now it seems as though there is funding and political will.
The State of California has even set up a very cool, high-tech web site where you can simulate trips to and from various points on the line as well as proposed routing. Today's press release shows that they are meeting this afternoon with Obama administration representatives to try and obtain $8 billion in federal stimulus funding. This would be added to the already taxpayer approved Prop 1A which passed in November, 2008 for almost $10 billion in bond funding.
The estimated $45 billion project had overwhelming support from Governor Schwartzenegger and the state legislature.
The train which would travel at 220MPH between Sacramento and San Diego with feeder lines proposed from the San Francisco Peninsula that would connect near Chowchilla and one under consideration from Oakland that would serve the East Bay and connect to the main line near Manteca.
Travel times are projected to be quite impressive: San Francisco to San Jose in 30 minutes, Burbank to San Francisco in under 2 hours and 35 minutes, San Diego to most areas in the Los Angeles area in under an hour.
The Combination of the bond issue and the Federal Stimulus money would not quite account for 40% of the proposed budget.
The project is indeed ambitious and the benefits are quite clear: decreased freeway congestion in the major parts of the state, decreased need to improve airport and highway infrastructure, decreased carbon dioxide emissions and fuel use, stimulate jobs in a large portion of the state etc.
It is a very exciting project that shows much promise and benefit to Californians.
If it is successful, it will have a significant impact on many industries: Auto fuel, the airline routes between Northern and Southern California, the auto industry, businesses and communities along the main auto corridors (primarily highways 5 and 101), and a huge impact on commute and residency patterns.
With inexpensive and quick transportation, suburban communities further away from metro centers would have easy access to the main job hubs. Tracy to Silicon Valley, areas such as Riverside and Palmdale to the greater LA area. Not to mention the areas that do not have easy access to the proposed roughly 26 terminals. These areas would become less desirable economically and reflect in the real estate values.
Historically, there are precedence. Just look at what happened to the old highway system and icons like Route 66 when the interstate highway system was built. And likewise gold-rush towns many of which became ghost towns, towns and cities that cropped up along rail routes in the 19th and early 20th century, or settlements along the old wagon train routes that declined when lines were changed or replaced by the interstates. These were major changes that affected the face of the U.S. Landscape, social interaction, and living and work patterns for significant numbers of the population.
The project, though ambitious, certainly meets the criteria of President Obama's several campaign goals: Greener economy, environmental improvement, decrease global warming, economic stimulus, etc. As such it should play well from the political spectrum, and if the necessary money could be injected it would be a huge political benefit for for the State and Federal governments.
If this project finally breaks ground in my lifetime, I will be amazed, only because it, like the old steam engines, has been so long in coming and taken so many decades to build political will and momentum. But it does look like a beneficial and ambitious project that will herald a new California and all of the benefits and detriments that come with a major shift in transportation technology. It looks like things are on the right track as long as the current budget and economic climate don't derail it.
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