California High Speed Rail: How will they operate it in 2030?

[@ciello___8307]

The scale of this project is daunting, but Im happy that california is leading the way and taking on this challenge

[@ethanpaul878]

lets goooo!!!!! high resolution upload.

[@JarrodBaniqued]

I have a suggestion for a future video topic: trainsets. Around 2016, CAHSR and Amtrak agreed to buy Avelia Liberty sets from Alstom together, but CAHSR reneged on the deal. Now the leading contender is the Siemens Pioneer 220, but I do wonder if Alstom is still in the running. I do also think Talgo’s AVRIL, Hitachi and Kawasaki’s E5, and CRRC’s CR450 would be quite appropriate contenders for the line (setting aside American buyers’ relative inexperience with those companies)

[@JarrodBaniqued]

As an aside: My favorite HSR sets are the CR450, the Japanese WIN350, and the French AGV Elisa, purely because they’re the most beautiful ones, and I’m glad to see CAHSR’s renderings embodying those

[@tonyburzio4107]

The Avelia Liberty was an unmitigated catastrophe It cost Amtrak over $3 BILLION before a single car was built. * * Source Amtrak Office of the Inspector General

[@ChrisJones-gx7fc]

It’s exciting to see how close things are getting now toward the start of installing tracks and systems, and eventually getting high speed trains running in the Central Valley. Progress continues on readying the SF and LA extensions for construction as well, with ongoing projects in both those regions that’ll one day benefit/be utilized by HSR. The high speed rail project is already delivering benefits even well before the first trains begin running, with things like all the grade separations but also all the jobs created so far and the positive economic impacts it’s had on the Central Valley, a long neglected region of the state. Those benefits will increase even more once trains begin carrying passengers, who will finally begin to be able to experience what much of the world has enjoyed for decades. The 119 miles currently under construction are now 100% funded, and enough funding has been identified to complete the extensions to Merced and Bakersfield and begin revenue service in 2030-33. Getting beyond the Valley anytime soon will be determined by the willingness of state and namely federal leaders to allocate the funding to make it happen.

[@tonyburzio4107]

JOBS??? Are you loony? They could have paid each worker $10 Million and saved money!

[@ChrisJones-gx7fc]

@@tonyburzio4107what are you talking about? How is creating jobs a bad thing, especially in a region that’s been underfunded for decades compared to the Bay Area and SoCal? This project is a game changer for the Central Valley and big economic boost, even with just mostly construction jobs right now. As things get closer to trains running and the initial revenue service, there’ll be even more job opportunities in the Central Valley, and the economic growth with them. High speed rail is bringing a type of positive investment to the Central Valley cities that’s been long overdue. If you’re going to make wild accusations, at least back them up with credible evidence.

[@felixtv272]

thanks for the reupload!

[@arxligion]

HD reupload!

[@arxligion]

Also for future things, I'd like to see possible local connections - buses, light rail, metro, commuter rail (metrolink), etc

[@AmpereBEEP]

Just finally got around to reuploading it. There seems to have been an issue on KZbin's end as it looks fine now.

[@orawancarlile6192]

I am glad to see it will be running finally after all Californians voted for it long ago.

[@franz-peterkayser722]

Where can I find information on the Amtrak plans to route trains via the new line?

[@TohaBgood2]

The San Joaquins will be truncated at Merced on the south end, but they will add more trains for both Oakland and Sacramento and will extend north from Sacramento toward Chico and Redding. Google the "San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission - Valley Rail". The plan includes upgrades to the ACE and the San Joaquins. Those two lines will effectively be CAHSR extensions to the Bay and Sac. They'll meet every CAHSR train for a cross-platform transfer at Merced and take you from there to your ultimate destination.

[@franz-peterkayser722]

@@TohaBgood2 Many thanks! That is much better than I would have expected. Still, I think one seat rides with dual mode trains would have higher passenger acceptance. That would have avoided an expensive micro fleet of only 6 HSR sets in favour of for allready practice proven concepts like Airo sets or Kiss dual mode. I guess it is the CHSR funding mandates for the very high top speed capability which makes dual mode impractical.

[@TohaBgood2]

@@franz-peterkayser722 Well, they can always just couple the HSR sets to Siemens Chargers and haul them to Sac and the Bay. But yes, this is a political issue more than anything else. The opponents of CAHSR will no doubt sue CAHSR if they ran trains slower than 220 mph. If the same train were to run into the Bay are coupled to a diesel locomotive they would definitely try to argue that that violates the 2h40min SF-LA maximum and be grounds to kill the project.

[@carisi2k11]

How are you supposed to make money on this rail service with only 1 train an hour?..... Those ticket prices are going to be high. Surely you should have atleast 4 trains an hour.

[@kerfitten1234]

Running mostly empty trains would raise prices even higher. There just isn't going to be a need for that much capacity until the land around the stations gets (re)developed and/or the line reaches SF/LA. Those train sets ain't cheap; they're around 30+ million each and you want to buy 4x as many up front.

[@tonyburzio4107]

They don't have ANY trains.

[@TohaBgood2]

@@tonyburzio4107 They're literally in the process of buying them right now. It's sooooooo funny to see you anti-CAHSR goons seething that this project is making so much progress lately 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@CoreyChambersLA]

Failure and fraud. Was supposed to be a high speed rail from san diego to san francisco and sacramento. Instead, they're trying to build a slow speed train to nowhere, and failing to even get that accomplished.

[@curtthomas8465]

Sacramento and San Diego are Phase 2. What they're talking about in Merced to Bakersfield is the interim service area of Phase I; that is, they'll have working track in the central valley before Phase I (LA to SF) is fully completed, so they're going to use that to start running trains on an interim service area and start turning some revenue while they finish the Phase I legs into LA and San Francisco. Current projections have opening of the interim service in 2029 and full Phase I opening in 2032. Phase II is over the horizon, for the time being. It's not a train to nowhere; the central valley metros would be considered big cities in any other state except NY or TX, and a pretty non-trivial amount of HWY 99 traffic comes from the fact that cars are the only realistic way to travel between them at the moment (most of Amtrak's San Joaquins stations are situated in orchards miles from anywhere you'd actually want to be, which isn't that helpful, plus low frequency and barely-faster-than-car travel times make Amtrak a really hard argument for getting around the central valley). This is going to help the valley suck a lot less, speaking as someone who lives there. As for slow, I must have missed where Stew discussed speeds. In any case, it'll still be faster than taking a car or Amtrak between any of the valley metros. One hour frequency isn't awful, it's a lot more convenient than our current two-hour frequency, but I'll admit that 45 minutes or 30 minutes would be a lot better. Anyway, yeah, the rail is having problems, but that's almost any infrastructure project in the US. New interstates have similar issues, but they don't get the same punching bag treatment that HSR gets, I guess because "haha dumb California" is an easy narrative to sell.

[@MathematicsStudent]

You might not like the connectivity, but this will absolutely not be a slow-speed train. At 220 mph, it will be the only true high-speed train in the western hemisphere, even for this initial operating segment. The construction is finally making huge progress. The problem is that the money it is getting now should have been given to this project years ago. The more they drag it out and try to drip-feed it money, the more it will cost.

[@tonyburzio4107]

If you contracted to build a new house and originally specified it cost $350K, and the builder came back ten years later with a bill for $350 Million to build the bathroom...

[@curtthomas8465]

@@tonyburzio4107 Project cost overruns happen in infrastructure. Even the famous Shinkansen came in at 2-3x over budget. Interstates, lane expansions, airports, and highways regularly come in wildly over budget, particularly when an urban center is involved (because building new infra inside an early established urban core is expensive no matter what you're doing, and HSR goes right through multiple urban cores. And before you say it shouldn't, consider why we have interstates going through urban cores: why would you ever take the highway if it never took you anywhere useful?). But nobody ever complains about the freeways and airports being over budget or needing to pay for themselves. Since you mentioned contractors, though, it's worth mentioning that at least some of CAHSR's overruns are from the fact that they're using contractors to build it, y'know, for maximum free market efficiency. A good example of that efficiency is when one of the contractors sent the state a cost overrun bill for $300,000 in long distance calls in 2017. So, IMO, one of the things that can be learned from CAHSR phase I is that we might be unironically better off having CalTrans build phase II.

[@MathematicsStudent]

@@tonyburzio4107 It's more like you ask for a quote to build a house and then you come back ten years later and the price has gone up because construction is more expensive now and you wish you would have spent the money back then instead of dragging out the process (also you didn't spend those ten years saving money or anything). But you still have to build the house at some point anyway because the house that you've been renting is on the coast and is going to be washed into the sea by erosion. Delaying the inevitable is only going to cost you more in the long term...