When You Go To San Francisco, Be Sure To Take The High Speed Rail
A new study cited in the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the best way to save California from itself is to install high speed rail:
A 700-mile, $37 billion high-speed rail system is California's best shot at handling intrastate travel as the state's population swells over the next two decades, according to an environmental study to be released today.
The long-awaited report concludes that a high-speed rail system linking the Bay Area and Sacramento to Los Angeles and San Diego through the Central Valley would be far cheaper and less environmentally damaging than expanding highways and airports.
The reports predicts that an effective high speed rail system could has the same travel time as a commerical flight from the Bay Area to L.A. (~3:20 minutes door-to-door) but actually cost less. 68 million passengers are expected to be carried by 2020.
As with all of these ideas, it's an excellent step toward getting people out of their cars and onto mass transit. And if Amtrak's Northeast Corridor is any indication, city-to-city trains that take about the same time door-to-door as airplanes are highly used. The problem here is keeping cost low enough that the train will be used by anyone but business people. And especially given California's current budget crisis (and the Governator's push to take the bond issue for the high-speed rail off the ballot), money will be the most important factor in getting this built and making it useful.
Post Author:
amg | 10:37 AM |
Link
|
TrackBacks
