Why does California need a high-speed rail?

Transportation accounts for the majority of emissions in California, and high-speed rail will help the state achieve its long-term climate goals by reducing transportation emissions. High-speed rail is a critical part of California's sustainable transportation network.



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California's plan is to build an electric train that will connect Los Angeles with the Central Valley and then San Francisco in two hours and 40 minutes. But 15 years later, there is not a single mile of track laid, and executives involved say there isn't enough money to finish the project.

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Implementing high-speed rail (HSR) will provide Americans with more transportation choices. It will also make sure that America remains an economic engine, and meets the environmental and energy challenges of this century.

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Fact: High-speed rail is starting with an initial 171-mile segment that will extend from Merced to Bakersfield. At the same time, we are continuing to move forward with environmental clearance in Northern California and Southern California to get these project sections ready for construction.

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This chart displays the Breakeven Analysis on Phase 1 of the high-speed rail system assuming the horizon year of 2040, showing a 99.4 percent probability that Phase 1 would be profitable between $0 to $5.7 billion and a 0.6 percent chance of deficit between $220 million and 0.

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Highways (as well as aviation) became the focus of infrastructure spending, at the expense of rail. This trend has continued, and not the least because highways require continuous maintenance, while the US's growing population demands more lanes and roads to relieve congestion.

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The interstate highway system cost $129 billion — roughly $290 billion in current dollars — and took 35 years to complete, running from 1957 to 1992. The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill enacted in 2021 has $102 billion for rail, but none of the money is set aside for high-speed rail.

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As of February 2021, the state of California has spent approximately $4.3 billion on the high-speed rail project that was planned to connect Los Angeles to San Francisco. However, it is important to note that the project is not entirely dead but has faced significant delays, cost overruns, and scaled-down plans.

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In 2008 when voters approved the bond measure for the train, the cost to connect the 500-mile span would be around $33 billion. Today, the whole 500-mile system would cost a grand total of $128 billion. That price tag has left state officials scratching their heads to bridge that $100 billion funding gap.

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High speed rail is not an economic development tool by itself, but it can activate economic development potential in numerous ways: saving time and money; expanding labor markets for employers and expanding employment opportunities for labor force; enhancing “clusters” of economic activity across regions; and creating ...

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In addition, the tracks, signals, rail cars and software made in the U.S. are costlier than imports, largely because the government has not funded rail the way European and Asian countries have, experts say.

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Which countries have high-speed trains? Several countries have built and developed high-speed rail infrastructure to connect major cities. In Europe, these include: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.

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Rendering of a train car for the California High-Speed Rail project. The California High-Speed Rail Authority has been awarded more than $200 million from the Biden Administration in what is one of the largest pieces of federal funding awarded to the project in its history.

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China initially relied on high-speed technology imported from Europe and Japan to establish its network. Global rail engineering giants such as Bombardier, Alstom and Mitsubishi were understandably keen to co-operate, given the potential size of the new market and China's ambitious plans.

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High-speed rail is generally regarded as the pinnacle of attractive and green transportation. But all too often, it makes train travel more expensive and less flexible. In the end, costly high-speed lines may just push more people into cars.

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The 2023 HSRA report projects the full 500-mile system will have 31.3 million riders a year by 2040. If the high-speed rail system averaged 11.5 million people a year paying $86 for a ticket, it would take this many years to break even: 11.5 million people a year is an average of about 31,000 per day.

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It Takes Decades to Plan and Build However, because of cost overruns and the pandemic, the authority now projects completion no earlier than 2033, nearly 40 years after planning began. Not all high-?speed rail lines may take this long, but two decades seems a likely minimum.

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The high-speed rail system will consist of up to 24 stations when completed, connecting the major population centers in the North and South through California's Central Valley.

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High Speed Rail is the world's safest form of transportation proven by decades of operations all around the world. Japan was the first nation to build high speed rail in 1964, and has since transported 10 billion passengers without a single injury or fatality!

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In 2021, Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway Co., Ltd. earned a total net profit of 4.8 billion yuan, an increase of more than 49 percent from the previous year. Established in Beijing in 2007, it is the only railroad company in China that introduces social cash investors and Sino-foreign cooperative operations.

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