Vegas and California High-Speed Rail systems to connect at Palmdale

[bananas]

At a press conference yesterday, it was announced that Vegas to SoCal is being designated an offical HSR corridor, and that they will connect at Palmdale.

Discussion at the cahsr blog: http://cahsr.blogspot.com/2009/07/socal-to-vegas-to-become-official.html

Map and photos from the press conference: http://www.lasvegassun.com/photos/galleries/2009/jul/02/train-press-conference/

[itsrobert]

1. What about a Victorville to Ontario link?

Wouldn't a loop around LA make it a better system?

[bananas]

5. Mountains vs flat terrain vs both

Look at the route with google maps (show terrain) or google earth.

http://cahsr.blogspot.com/2009/06/harry-reid-abandons-maglev-for.html?showComment=1244623529294#c7323782033747702832

Peter said...

Obviously connecting the DX from Victorville directly to Ontario would serve large portions of LA and SD far better than a connection at Palmdale. The problem is simply money.

A direct connection to LA means going through the Cajon Pass. There already are 3 freight lines and 8 (I think from google maps) lanes of I-15 going through the pass. The freight lines are heavily speed restricted due to grades and sharp turns. Basically the surface of the pass is completely congested and would never work for HSR. That means the only choice is a 5-10 mile long tunnel going right through it. That's not terribly long, but the tunnel will be crossing the San Andreas fault underground, which will add lots of complications. This will probably be on the order of $5-10 billion to build. However since this only serves SoCal you'd also want to build the Mojave/Barstow connection at the same time.

Palmdale to Victorville on the other hand is absolutely trivial to build. It's 50 miles of completely flat nothing. Given DX costs, this should be on the order of $1 billion.

A Palmdale to Victorville connection is an extremely cheap, quick, and "good enough" solution that should be done soon. From NorCal a direct line from Mojave to Barstow would only cut 10% of the SF->LV travel distance. It'd be fairly cheap and easy to add, but I doubt there will be enough traffic to justify it. For SoCal a tunnel would cut about 25% of the travel distance. If there's enough SoCal traffic to justify it (which I don't doubt) and someone comes up with the $billions needed for the tunnel (who's paying, CA, NV, or DX?), there's nothing stopping it from being added later.

June 10, 2009 1:45 AM

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

2. And linking Palmdale to Methville is going to cost / accomplish what?

Other than link to the proposed Desert Xpress service nobody will use?

[itsrobert]

3. Why isn't it going thru the Neverland Ranch?

;)

[LeftyMom]

4. No direct line from SF and the East Bay out the 80 to/through Sacto?

Geez, it's not like that's not one of the most heavily traveled highway and rail commutes in the country, or one of the few places in CA where people already use rail...

Seems to me that would be the cheapest place to start, and the best bang for one's buck in terms of getting people out of their cars on a regular basis.