You probably know that one of the big infrastructure development projects that's been pushed by President Obama has been high-speed rail. In fact, there are billions of dollars ready to be spent specifically on high-speed rail.
There are a number of states competing for this money, and they're in the process of applying for the Federal money currently, with applications to be turned in by the end of August, after which officials will consider various factors like feasibility and how far along each project is in terms of planning.
In the last few days, there's been some unexpected ews related to California and its plans for HSR. I was optimistic when I first saw headlines, but now I'm incredibly disappointed by what I see.
So in terms of planning and initial hurdles, California lucked out and our HSR plan turned out to be in the right place at the right time.
For one, we approved of Proposition 1A in November, which authorized nearly $10B in bonds to be sold by the state to go towards building a system that can can travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles in 160 minutes or less.
The California High Speed Authority has already done a huge amount of the planning, including determining the a route, and is set to begin acquiring easements for the tracks.
In other words, it's a project that's been taken very, very seriously for years. There have been multiple studies, environmental and otherwise, to help get the project along this far.
So I was surprised, to say the very least, to see a Press Release titled Secretary LaHood Announces Extension of California High-Speed Rail Corridor to Las Vegas.
Wow, an extension to our HSR? That's unexpected, but hey, it could get us support with Harry Reid, who's already abandoned the proposal for the Anaheim-Las Vegas Maglev Line.
And hey, it'd be an extension? Just think how awesome that'd be! I could walk down to the station (I live in downtown San Francisco), hop on a train, and be whisked to Sin City faster than you can say "Double down!" Right?
Well, no. Not at all, in fact. It is true that there is a high-speed rail plan, and one terminus is in Southern California. But that's about all it has to do with California's HSR plan that's been in the works for years.
Practically speaking, what does this mean? That you can get off the CA HSR in LA and hop on a train to Las Vegas from there? That's not too bad of an inconvenience.
So what are the details of this new Las Vegas plan?
DesertXPress Enterprises wants to build a European-style high speed train that relies on conventional technology. The 150 mph system would run about 200 miles from Victorville to Las Vegas and cost about $3.5-$4 billion to build.
From Victorville to Las Vegas? Victorville? Really?
For those unfamiliar with Southern California geography, I've included a map:
Point A on there is a big downtown Los Angeles train station. Point B is Victorville. Google Maps informs me that the highlighted routeis approximately 80 miles and would take between 1.5 and 2.5 hours to drive.
Apparently the route between Victorville and Las Vegas would just follow I-15, like this:
Note: There's pretty much nothing at all whatsoever between Victorville and Las Vegas. So there wouldn't be any stations in the middle, very few crossings and other obstacles to worry about, and generally pretty flat terrain.
I'd be hard-pressed to call this system "mass transit" or "public transit." Practically speaking, the only way to get to Victorville right now is with a car. And so this system does nothing to alleviate traffic within Los Angeles and surrounding areas. It does turn Victorville into a very, very big parking lot. It very conspicuously keeps any necessary improvements to California's infrastructure to an absolute minimum, since it's obvious that this was designed to be as cheaply built as possible, at the expense of, well, most of the principles behind such a system.
This is Harry Reid's cash importing money train.
This is not an "extension" of the CA High-Speed Rail system. It's not a system built in cooperation with CA High-Speed Rail or any other infrastructure groups.
But it is devised to o help the project ride on the coattails of what is a real proposal and years of work to somehow attach this party train project to all that. Don't be fooled.