California HSR "Blended" Approach

It seems that the California High Speed Rail Authority is working hard in order to overcome all the challenges they are facing. By leveraging on existing infrastructures, HSR in California can be built faster and cheaper.  Please find the latest Statements from the HSR authority. STATEMENTS ON “BLENDED” APPROACH IN CALTRAIN CORRIDOR SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California High-Speed Rail Board Chairman Dan Richard addresses the issue of blended services in the Caltrain corridor: “We’re very interested in enhancing connections between high-speed rail and local transit and other transportation systems. The Governor has told us he wants a plan that will get high-speed rail trains on the track sooner and in a less costly manner than previous plans called for.  If that can be accomplished by electrifying Caltrain’s lines and using that right-of-way, then it’s certainly something we want to consider,' Richard said. “We will still begin construction in the Central Valley.  Some of our plans already call for blending high speed rail with local and regional transportation systems like Caltrain and Metrolink in Los Angeles.  This will result in building high-speed rail better and faster. It will mean less disruption for communities, not to mention the costs that would be saved by taking this approach," Richard said. Concerns have been raised about the High-Speed Authority’s commitment to a blended system in which Caltrain and high-speed rail would share two tracks on the Peninsula, and the Authority is responding to these concerns. The concerns were reported in a Friday newspaper article focused on a recently released environmental impact report for the Bay Area to the Central Valley. The Revised Draft Program EIR is an important technical document prepared in accordance with CEQA requirements. Authority Board member Jim Hartnett added, “as was presented in the Authority’s Draft Business Plan released Nov. 1, and in subsequent discussion with key policymakers, the Authority is actively exploring a blended approach in the Caltrain corridor." Hartnett is a former chair of the Caltrain Joint Powers Board of Directors (San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties). The Authority has been working with Caltrain in studying how Caltrain and High-Speed Rail trains can operate together within the existing right of way. The agency is in the final stages of publishing a 2012 Revised Business Plan and anticipates considering this plan at its upcoming April 5 board meeting. “I believe the 2012 Revised Business Plan should further highlight the blended approach,” said Hartnett. California’s High-Speed Train Project      The California High-Speed Rail Authority is developing a San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles and Anaheim high-speed rail system that will operate at speeds of up to 220 miles per hour. The full system will connect all of the state’s major urban centers, including Sacramento and San Diego. Initial infrastructure construction will begin in the Central Valley, the backbone of the system, in 2012. The project will generate 100,000 construction job-years of employment over the next five years and nearly one million economy-wide job-years over the life of the project. The project is being funded through voter-approved state bonds, federal funding grants, local funding, and public-private partnerships.