The First High Speed Rail Station Breaks Ground

[bananas]

http://www.cahsrblog.com/2010/08/the-first-high-speed-rail-station-breaks-ground/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-first-high-speed-rail-station-breaks-ground

The First High Speed Rail Station Breaks Ground
Aug 11th, 2010 | Posted by Robert Cruickshank

In San Francisco today, a group of top local and national political leaders gathered to break ground on the new Transbay Terminal – the first high speed rail station in California, and potentially the country (depending on whether you define the Acela as “high speed rail” or not).


Photo from Congressman George Miller
(From L to R: Willie Brown, John Burton, Maria Ayerdi-Kaplan (TJPA), George Miller, Gavin Newsom, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Ray LaHood, Barbara Boxer, Curt Pringle, Nathaniel Ford (Muni) and David Crane (CHSRA board))

<snip>

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Only 46 years after Japan's Bullet Train!

USA USA USA

[nightrain]

2. great! Late, but needed!

[liberal N proud]

3. Is it truly going to be high speed?

Looking at the map, CHSR looks like there are way too many stops to consider this high speed.

Without seeing how scheduling would work, it is hard to make a true judgment.

I just think that if you want it to be true HSR, there would be 1 - 2 stops for major metropolitan areas. LA metro area has 5 stops, the Bay Area has 4

http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/map.htm

This is what is happening to every effort to put High Speed Rail into place, state legislators all say they want it to stop in their communities, killing High Speed aspect. It is happening to an effort here in Ohio on a line that was to originally have 4 stops, the estimated average speed has been brought down to 35 mph.

[bananas]

7. Yes, there are going to be express trains with few stops

and Prop 1A limited the total number of stations to 24 in order to get the support of environmental organizations concerned about sprawl, so we don't have to worry about extra stations being added.

[txlibdem]

9. 155 average MPH from San Francisco to San Diego

I'd still call that high speed.

Using the link you supplied and selecting San Francisco as the starting point and San Diego as the destination it calculates a 616 mile trip and an estimated 3 hours 56 minutes for the trip. This route takes you through quite a number of stops along the route and yet still gets you there at an average mile per hour of 155. Pretty darn good, and it would be a whole lot more enjoyable a trip than being packed like sardines inside an airplane.

[liberal N proud]

10. 155 would be acceptable

The only other question I have is, are they going to cram people in like they do on airplanes or is it going to be a luxurious ride like HSR in Europe? Hope they keep it comfortable, but the American way is to get as much as we can out of it.

[mike r]

4. Faster than BART or Union Pacific coal train?

[Warpy]

5. We have a high speed commuter rail system here in NM

that goes north-south along the Rio Grande and will undoubtedly save the exurbs from extinction.

We're still building a few stations here and there, but it's been so successful so far, Colorado and Texas are both talking about extending it to Denver and El Paso. (Whether or not this is feasible is moot, the terrain is extremely rugged around here.)

California is going to love it.

[old mark]

6. Great to see it! Here in Reading, PA, 19th and 20th century rail hub of the industrial

North East, we don't even have passenger train service.
Have to drive to Philly or Lancaster to get on an Amtrak train...we have NO commuter trains anywhere, either.
It was proposed to build train service here as part of the stimulus, and many people want it.

It is "being studied" now...

mark

[txlibdem]

8. Hooray for High Speed Rail

If we had a widespread and nationwide network of high speed rail lines many people would stop flying and some would even take the high speed train rather than drive. Win. Win. Win.