highspeedrail_FINAL2

Feasibility of High-Speed Rail in America: Using California as a Case Study
U.S. Department of Transportation – STIPDG Internship, 2015
August 4th
, 2015
John Jackson IV (FTA) – University of Oregon
Allen Lum (FRA) – University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Quintin Saffold (FHWA) – The John Marshall Law School
John Gibson IV (NHTSA) – George Mason University
Alejandro McGhee-Mair (FRA) – Vassar College

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The Rise of High-Speed Rail
We live in a world that is perpetually asking the question, “How can transportation be
faster, better, and cheaper, yet safe?” Rail is not exempt from this push. There are trains today
which are capable of travelling speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour, covering vast distances as
they bring far off towns ever closer to the metropoli of the world. Still there are calls for trains of
the future to go even faster. Higher speed rail is the gleaming aspiration of all rail entities but
alas not all passenger rail is created equally and as such the landscape of passenger rail is
complicated and best explained through careful historical analysis. The history of high-speed
trains owes a debt of gratitude to its much slower predecessors which served as a proof of
concept for rail-based overland transport, which carried the goods of growing nations long before
an aircraft ever took to the air. Looking forward, faster trains point to the shape of things to
come.
The concept of high-speed rail was pioneered by the Japanese through the work of Shinji
Sogo, who was appointed president of the Japanese National Railways in the late 1950s. Before
expansion, rail in Japan was plagued by the problem of saturated and aging train lines which
struggled to handle the growing nation’s extremely high ridership. Another factor that sought to
hold back Japanese rail was its dearth of necessary industrial materials to expand after World
War II. First and foremost, Sogo believed that to be competitive more Japanese trunk lines would
have to not only be electrified but all have their gauge standardized to the national benchmark of
4 feet 8 and a half inches.1
Even more controversially he also believed that the trains that ran on
these new lines would have to be even faster than they were. The completion of the first high-
1
Japan Railway & Transport Review No. 11 pp.60–63

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speed main trunk line was completed between Osaka and Tokyo in 19642
, a year after he stepped
down in 8 years into his presidency, for misrepresenting the true costs of modernizing the main
high-speed Toikado Shinakensen trunk lines while President of Japanese National Rail (JNR.)3
.
The first Japanese bullet train that would run on this high-speed trunk line was known as the
Shinkansen Series 0, which had a top speed of 137 mph. People at the time were struck by the
projectile-like shape of these speedy trains that they dubbed them “bullet trains.” To this day
high-speed rolling stock is often referred to as “bullet trains” because of the iconic shape of the
founding Series 0s. This technology successfully competed with air service a fact which
encouraged its adoption in foreign markets beyond Japan. All bullet trains today are descended
from the cutting edge design legacy that the early Shinkansen rolling stock created.
As enticing as the possibility of fast trains were, the adoption of high-speed rail did not
occur uniformly nor did every nation take it up with a similar fervor as the case of the United
States will show later. In Europe, for example, rail had long been the preferred mode of transport
in Europe to connect growing urban centers.4
After many railways were destroyed in WWII, it
made sense to rebuild these services using more modern standards since such a market was
proven to be heavily used and accepted by many populations. Italy would be credited with
adoption of the first high-speed rail lines in Europe in 1978.5
Two years later the Societe
nationale des Chemins de fer francais (SNCF) in France would develop the Train a Grande
Vitesse (TGV) which now famously connects London to Paris within 3 hours. Trains like the
2
Hood, Christopher P. (2007). Shinkansen – From Bullet Train to Symbol of Modern Japan. Routledge, London. pp.
18–43.
3
Japan Railway & Transport Review No. 11 (pp.60–63)
4
Green, John. "The Railroad Journey and the Industrial Revolution: Crash Course World History 214." YouTube.
November 1, 2014. Accessed July 17, 2015.
5
James, Randy. "A Brief History of High-Speed Rail." Time. April 20, 2009. Accessed July 17, 2015.

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TGV based in France and the Shinkansen of Japan pushed the boundary and encouraged other
Western European nations to invest in faster trains.6
Transportation Culture in the United States
In the United States, the automobile revolutionized how people in the Western world
travelled which has put it in direct conflict with passenger rail revenue. Professor of Sociology
and Mobilities, Mimi Sheller, notes that for many Americans affinities for automobile
transportation are deeply engraved in transportation culture. According to Sheller, our dominant
car culture is “built into our forms of where we live, our dwellings, our neighborhoods, but also
our patterns of familial life of how we connect with people...” Cars operate as intersections of
the public and the intimate as they project an external message to the world about someone’s
socioeconomic status as much as they serve as an internal site for intimate intrapersonal
communication with individuals who ride within them. Extending Sheller’s argument, travel by
cars enables the people who use them to live out and practice a type of self-determined
movement.
The middle of the 20th century also spelled another shift for the transportation culture of
the United States. In the 1950s subsonic air travel’s meteoric rise as well as the passage of
Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 would deal another blow to inter-city rail. Both moments
capitalized on what had been a multi-decade trend where government funding was pushed to
both airport programs as well as highway expansion projects. Many people at that time thought
that air as well as car travel would wipe away passenger rail as many of these companies
struggled to maintain profits in a changing intermodal landscape.
6
Gourvish, Terry. "The high speed rail revolution: history and prospects." HS2 Ltd., London (2010). p 10-11

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On the urging of passenger rail advocates following the dramatic decline of passenger
rail, the U.S. Government passed the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970 which called for the
creation of a national inter-city rail service. This decision merged most American passenger rail
companies into a single entity which we now call Amtrak. Such a bold move staved off the
increased the fall of the passenger-carrying sector of rail in the United States. Today the closest
thing the United States has to high-speed rail is Acela which is a subsidiary of Amtrak that runs
from Washington D.C. to New York to Boston, and which can travel at top speeds of 150 mph.
Acela’s high-speed services, albeit limited, serve as a model of possibility for what high-speed
rail of the future could be in America, a little slower than its foreign counterparts, but one that
gets the job done.
Engineering Specifications for High-Speed Rail
Political and social trends of the later 20th and early 21st century have favored more
austere and conservative infrastructure plans which have been detrimental to expensive
infrastructure projects like high-speed rail development. With that said, there have been plans to
develop high-speed rail in California as well as in Florida which have both been thwarted by
funding and other logistical limits. For HSR proponents this shift away from grand scale
projects in the national discourse has complicated the path of high-speed trains which some have
estimated would cost millions upon millions of dollars per mile. Weary of the high costs of
implementation some have argued largely that we must take care of the infrastructure we already
have which is an extensive and similarly complicated effort.
Part of the reason high-speed rail is so prohibitively expensive to construct comes from
the engineering feats needed to realize such systems. Most successful high-speed rail systems in

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the world operate on their own right of ways segregated both from freight operations and from
other commuter services. However, running high-speed rail on its own set of tracks necessitates
infrastructure that requires much financial and physical resources. As currently demonstrated by
California’s high-speed rail project, high-speed rail demands much from a government’s coffers
to both secure the land necessary for property acquisition and erect viaducts on which the tracks
will be supported.
In order for trains to reach the speeds defined as “high-speed,”7
the tracks must be laid on
a straight alignment, and while curvature of the tracks may be permitted, they may not exceed a
certain radius. These engineering requirements are designed to ensure that the trains can run
rapidly and safely on the rails without derailing. As Patrick di Justo of The New Yorker points
out, these rails “must be carefully designed to handle the physical forces imposed upon them by
multi-ton trains moving at high velocity.”8
The interaction between the wheels of the train and
the tracks are governed primarily by the law of centrifugal forces. At high speeds, a train picks
up inertia which would direct it to travel on a straight line; this force applies even when the train
runs on curved track. When the train speeds up on curved track, the wheels traveling on the
outermost edge of the curved track bear the brunt of the train’s weight. Various accidents in
high-speed rail history demonstrate that when the weight exceeds that of which the wheels on the
external side of the tracks can handle, the train leaves the tracks with devastating results.
7
Different jurisdictions have various definitions of “high speed.”
8
Patrick di Justo, “The Physics of High-Speed Trains,” The New Yorker, July 25th
, 2013,
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-physics-of-high-speed-trains.

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Figure 1: A typical high-speed rail track: They cannot exceed a
certain curve radius without slowing down trains.
Accordingly, the tracks on which the trains run on require significant infrastructure such
as viaducts, bridges, and tunnels to maintain a straight right of way. When geographic or
topographic challenges force the line into a curve, engineers must use a variety of methods to
ensure that trains continue at speeds relative to traveling on straight track. One way of ensuring
safety while maintaining fast speeds is to utilize a technique called “banked curves,” in which the
outer rail of a track rests on a higher platform than the inner rail. This is done to balance the
train’s suspension and to ensure that the train’s weight is evenly distributed between the wheels,
all of which helps the train remain on its track.9
In spite of the design specifications intended to
counteract the effects of curved track, high-speed rail can contain only so much curvature.
Furthermore, because trains are typically traversing their respective routes at speeds upwards of
150 miles per hour (mph), the
rails on which they run must be
made of high strength steel, “with
ballast deeper than usual, and tied
together with more number of
concrete sleeps than any other
usual track.”10
Furthermore, the
rails used in high-speed tracks are
continuously welded to withstand
the stress of high-speed
operations. These welded rails
9
di Justo, “The Physics of High-Speed Trains.”
10
Sourabh Bodas, “High Speed Train – The Infrastructure,” Science as I see it, May 7, 2011, http://science-as-i-see-
it.blogspot.com/2011/05/high-speed-train-infrastructure.html

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not only provide passenger comfort and easy maintenance, but they also “prevent displacement
of rails through the track fastening elements.”11
Rails usually expand during hot weather and
contract during the winter. Thus, continuously welded rail are clamped down to restrict
movement.
Conventional railways often install ballasted track but for maximum performance, many
high-speed rail systems around the world install slab track. Ballasted track is a set of tracks that
are fastened onto wooden or concrete ties, which are held in place by loose pebbles. While
allowing for drainage, ballasted track does not provide full stability. Thus, most new high-speed
rail systems demand that slab track be constructed. Slab track are rails that are directly fixated
onto the concrete floor itself. Tracks constructed in such a manner pose many benefits: namely
that the rails are stabilized against involuntary warping and movement. In addition, slab track
does not require maintenance, if any. Because of the high construction quality of slab track, slab
track often lasts for periods of, on average, 60 years, which is twice the lifespan of conventional
ballasted track.12
The design necessities of high-speed rail translate into infrastructure that is planned only
for high-speed trains. Because high-speed rail systems are being designed along highly urbanized
corridors and land already heavily settled, such projects sometimes elicit both stalwart political
opposition and exorbitant costs. Like conventional rail, high-speed trains cannot ascend or
11
Rakesh Kumar and Akhil Upadhyay, “Effect of temperature gradient on track-bridge interaction,” Interaction and
Multiscale Mechanics 5, no. 1 (2012): 2.
12
Georgios Michas, “Slab Track Systems for High-Speed Railways,” Division of Highway and Railway
Engineering, Department of Transport Science, School of Architecture and the Built Environment, Royal Institute,
2012, 91, http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:530940/fulltext01
.

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descend on tracks with steep grades. As a result, tunnels and bridges are built to accommodate
the tracks whenever the line encounters valleys, rivers, and mountain ranges.
In spite of the heavy infrastructure that high-speed rail necessitates, the ability for these
systems to carry high transport capacities means that much less land is required to haul large
traffic volumes. Compared to the traffic lane on average consumes 9.3 hectares per kilometer, an
average high-speed line only uses 3.2 hectares per kilometer. In other words, high-speed rail only
needs one third of the land needed to carry the same amount of people as a highway.13
As with conventional railroads, the design and construction of high-speed rail systems
emphasizes safety, a component that is especially important to consider because trains move at
higher speeds. When care is not taken to ensure safety as a priority, tragic accidents such the
ones in Eschede, Spain; Wenzhou, China; and Santiago, Spain inevitably occur.
An analysis of high-speed rail systems worldwide, particularly of those found in
European countries relays a greater understanding of the mechanics and designs used to avert
derailment and crashes. To ensure that its trains run smoothly, efficiently, and safely, European
high-speed rail systems all have European Train Control System (ETCS), which is a component
of the Automatic Train Protection (ATP), which functions by enforcing the designated route a
train is supposed to take. To run on the route a train is scheduled to take, ATP makes sure that it
“obeys the decision of the ‘interlocking’ and stops at the right place, thus preventing trains from
crashing.”14
An interlocking is the arrangement of signals that governs the maneuvers a train is
13
“High speed rail: Fast track to sustainable mobility,” International Union of Railways, 6.
14
Richard Jackson, “The European Train Control System (ETCS) – A Beginner’s Guide,” Velocity Network no. 73
(2011): 23.

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supposed to take when it approaches a series of rail switches. Such switches are junctions
between two or more tracks that permit a train to cross from one track to another.
ATP works by translating a train’s selected route and then monitoring the train’s progress
through its journey. When it senses the train approaching an interlocking at higher than the speed
limit, ATP automatically activates the train’s braking system to ensure that the train slows down.
Furthermore, ATP works to prevent the train from traveling too quickly.
High-Speed Rail Operations
The implementation of a safe high-speed rail system should take into account issue
surrounding human factors early on the in the design process. Rail accidents commonly occur on
lines that operate at standard speeds and high-speed rail lines will need added measures to
compensate for the additional velocity. The benefit of rail travel overall is the limited coefficient
of adhesion of the steel wheels of the train to the steel tracks. However the relatively low traction
creates significant braking distances about 3800 yards at 155mph.15
In many cases, train
operators will not be able respond to critical event in a timely manner necessitating improved
signal and automation keep the trains within ideal braking distances. Extended braking distance
also creates a need for highly maintained track conditions to exacting specification to avoid
placing operators in present danger. It is also important consider that train operation is a known
sustained attention problem which relates to signal passed at danger (SPADS) and automation
side effects.16
15
Collis, Lynne, and Paul Robins. "Developing appropriate automation for signaling and train control on high speed
railways." (2001): 255-260.
16
Edkins, Graham D., and Clare M. Pollock. "The influence of sustained attention on railway accidents." Accident
Analysis & Prevention 29, no. 4 (1997): 533-539.

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The use of the word accident to describe incidents that occur in rail could be considered a
misnomer when the same word is used to describe spilled milk. The weight and momentum
involved in rail accidents are some of the most powerful that modern engineers and designers
must cope with. These accidents can easily lead to serious injury and death. As a result,
commonplace slip-ups or cognitive failures are subject to fines and imprisonment. However,
cognition is a result of biology, which is not under voluntary control. It therefore makes little
sense to institute policy that essentially seeks to govern biological processes which is what has
been accomplished by creating enforcement around cognitive failures. Policy making that
surrounds enforcement will lead to behaviors to avoid punishment which serves to complicate
future investigations. Policy should rather focus on regulating preventative strategies that aim at
the root cause of the problem rather than symptoms of the problem.
Operators of high-speed rail will face challenges well known to transportation overall in
the form of operator distraction. With the growing ubiquity of personal electronic devices the
potential for operator distraction is ever present. This has led to major legislation around the use
of cell phones while operating a vehicle for nearly every mode of transportation under the U.S.
D.O.T.. However, it is also very important to the consider information an operator might need
when considering the complex braking involved in high-speed rail. Display systems that in
hindsight can be considered complex were once implemented by the British with no clear gain in
safety. Complex displays can create attentional competition which occurs when there is time
pressure for decision making. The result is often failure to attend to demands of driving by
failing adapt behavior to emerging conditions.17
Policy makers should take a data-driven
17
Olson, Rebecca L., Richard J. Hanowski, Jeffrey S. Hickman, and Joseph L. Bocanegra. Driver distraction in
commercial vehicle operations. No. FMCSA-RRR-09-042. 2009.

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approach in developing distraction programs that reduce personal electronic device usage and
broadly set standards for decision making timeframes for operator displays.
Operator fatigue is responsible for an untold number of accidents in rail and across
transportation modalities.18
A great deal of research has been conducted in sleep science that has
been applied operator performance in transportation. A four factor model explains the issue of
operator fatigue by considering: operator sleep/wake history, operator health, circadian factors,
and environmental or organizational factors. Operators can suffer from acute sleep where the
individual does not get enough sleep the night before work. However a more deleterious form of
sleep deprivation is chronic or cumulative sleep loss where sleep is fragment or disturbed leading
to a net loss of hour of sleep over a number of nights. Over time the accumulated sleep debt leads
to performance decrements associated with other types of fatigue. Operators may also suffer
from health issues like insomnia or sleep apnea that makes finding sleep hard and lowers the
quality of sleep. Additionally, health issues may require an operator to take drugs that induce
drowsiness. Circadian factors pertain to the neural biological processes of the body that are
driven in sync with the rising and falling of the sun. Alertness is particularly tied to the circadian
rhythm therefore drivers tend to be very susceptible to drowsiness between 0300 and 0500 hours.
Other caveats to fatigue include environmental factors (e.g. lightening and brightness of the cab),
organizational factors (e.g. the presence of a fatigue risk management system FRMS), and the
nature of the task (e.g. monotonous and requiring few inputs).19
18
Price, Jana M., and Bruce G. Coury. "A Method for Applying Fatigue Science to Accident Investigation."
Reviews of Human Factors and Ergonomics 10, no. 1 (2015): 79-114.
19
Gander, Philippa, Laurence Hartley, David Powell, Philippe Cabon, Edward Hitchcock, Ann Mills, and Stephen
Popkin. "Fatigue risk management: Organizational factors at the regulatory and industry/company level." Accident
Analysis & Prevention 43, no. 2 (2011): 573-590.

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Vigilance is a peculiar factor that arises when operators are asked to respond or keep vigil
for an infrequent signal or cue. Because the nature of train operation is monotonous (e.g.
operators are not required to make steering inputs and speed is maintained at a constant once
cruise is reached) and cues that require a system input are infrequent (e.g. a truck stopped on a
grade crossing), vigilance is a common problem in train operation. Signal Passed at Danger
(SPADs) is a performance decrement associated with sustained attention or vigilance. Studies
examining blood flow in the brain while participants were given a sustained attention task found
that the body recruited more resources or increased blood to areas of the brain associated with
attention the longer the vigil endured.20
The vigilance decrement is a well –known phenomena in
human factors in which the ability of respondents to detect infrequent targets degrades after
around 30 minutes of sustained attention. Taken together, this means that there is a biological
limit to how long we can attend to a task at a given level of performance. In high-speed rail
application this human limitation has led to the implementation of automated systems to reduce
the number of accidents associated with SPADs.
Cost & Construction
The economic viability of high-speed rail is greatly affected by cost. Cost of high-speed
rail tend to decrease in corridors where right-of way exists that can be used for rail purposes, and
a relatively flat- and straight-alignment can be used, compared with corridors that require the
acquisition of new right-of-way, substantial tunneling, or bridges. In addition, tradeoffs are often
made relative to cost and service characteristics. For example, projects no track shared with
20
Helton, William S., Todd D. Hollander, Joel S. Warm, Lloyd D. Tripp, Kelley Parsons, Gerald Matthews, William
N. Dember, Raja Parasuraman, and Peter A. Hancock. "The abbreviated vigilance task and cerebral
hemodynamics."Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology 29, no. 5 (2007): 545-552.

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freight operators may be less expensive, but these track often cannot achieve the same types of
travel time-competitiveness or reliability as dedicated tract, which is not shared with other trains.
Most of the foreign high-speed rail systems attributed their ability to achieve the time-
competitiveness, frequency, reliability, and safety to operating on dedicated track and having no
at-grade highway or other crossings. These systems cost billions of dollars to construct, although
construction cost per mile varied substantially, see Table 2). 21
In Spain, construction costs
ranged from $37 million to $53 million per mile. According to Japanese transportation officials,
construction costs in Japan are typically higher
because of anti-seismic safeguards, high land
costs, and the number of bridges and tunnels
needed to accommodate straight- and level-tract
through Japan’s mountainous terrain.
Proposed projects in the United States
are also expected to cost several billion dollars
to construct. The Baltimore, Maryland to
Washington, D.C., project has the highest
estimated construction cost per mile, because it
plans to use maglev technology, which is costlier to construct than lines using electrified, diesel
or other train technology, and to be built along a corridor that is densely populated, meaning
higher land acquisition costs and more technical constructions.
21
High Speed Passenger Rail, Future Development Will Depend on Addressing Fianancial and Other Challenges
and Establishing a Clear Federal Role. GAO-09-317 ed. Vol. March 2009. Washington, D.C., 2009. 22-25.
Table 1

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In 2009, the highly anticipated California high-speed rail line has been estimated to cost
between $63- $65 million per mile.22
With a total of 520 miles, the project has a $68 billion total
project cost. However, there is great concern that this estimate will gradually increase as the
project continues to develop. Another cost is track maintenance. The New York Times estimated
$200,000 a mile per year, which would bring the fixed cost of the California track to $648
million per annum.23
In 2008, the Federal government’s approval of $10.1 billion in funding for high-speed
rail in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the FY 2010 budget was
welcomed with great enthusiasm by states nationwide, 39 of which applied for rail planning or
construction grants.24
The two states that had already developed plans for Core Express high-
speed rail (California and Florida) were the most successful in the competition for federal
funding. Since then, there has been an overwhelming request for the Federal government to
become involved in the development of high-speed rail and to commit to a consistent increase in
funds for high-speed rail.
Environmental Assessment
High-speed rail has the potential to provide greater environmental benefits and energy
efficiencies than other modes of long distance travel. However, several conditions must be met to
obtain these benefits.
22,
High Speed Passenger Rail, Future Development Will Depend on Addressing Financial and Other Challenges
and Establishing a Clear Federal Role. GAO-09-317 ed. Vol. March 2009. Washington, D.C., 2009. 22-25.
23
Glaeser, Edward L. "Running the Numbers on High-Speed Trains." The New York Times. 2009. Accessed
August 3, 2015.
24
Todorovich, Petra, and Daniel Schned. High-speed Rail: International Lessons for U.S. Policy Makers.
Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2011.

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High-speed rail is the only available mode of long-distance travel that currently is not
dependent on motor fuels. High-speed rail is powered by electricity, which is not without
environmental problems depending on its source. If it is powered by electricity generated from
fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas that discharge harmful greenhouse gas emissions, then its
environmental benefits are limited. However, electricity is generally considered an improvement
over petroleum generated power and provides a crucial advantage as the United States aims to
reduce its dependence on foreign oil. Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and parts of the Keystone
Corridor (connecting Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Philadelphia) are electrified.25
Maximizing Load Occupancy
High-speed rail offers greater operating efficiency on a per passenger mile basis than
competing modes, such as single-occupancy automobiles or airplanes that require significant
amounts of fuel to get off the ground. For example, Shinkansen trains are estimated to use one-
quarter the energy of airplanes and one-sixth that of private automobiles per passenger mile (JR
Central 2011a).26
To achieve environmental benefits, high-speed trains must maximize load factors to realize the
greatest efficiencies. As high-speed rail ridership increases, so does its relative energy efficiency,
whereas a high-speed train carrying no passengers ceases to be efficient in any sense.
According to Dr. Anthony Perl, a professor of urban studies and political science, the fact
that high-speed rail does not use fossil fuels is the most important aspect of its environmental
25
26

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impact. With most of the world dependent on a limited resource, Perl believes that “high-speed
rail offers a proven means of reducing dependence on this increasingly problematic energy
source.” Perl continues to point out that alternative energy technologies are slow to develop, but
high-speed rail is technology widely available today. On the opposite side of the debate,
transportation expert Richard Gilbert argues that the green benefits of high-speed rail are
mitigated by energy grids still powered by fossil fuels. From that perspective, Gilbert believes in
some situations high-speed rail could cause more environmental harm than good and that a
notable environmental impact would be better found by creating grid-connected traction on a
global scale. The point was also made that unless a significant amount of passengers switch to
high-speed rail and abandon automobiles, the reduction in carbon footprint will be minimal.27
Finally, in regions where the number of total trips is not growing, high-speed rail can bring about
a net reduction of energy use through mode shift by capturing passengers from automobile or
airplane trips. In regions like California where population and trips are projected to keep
growing, high-speed rail can help reduce the energy and climate impacts on a per passenger basis
through a combination of mode shift and attracting new passengers to high-speed rail.
California High-Speed Rail Development
The idea for a high-speed rail line in California began in the early 1980’s. These first
ideas began with the possibility of a high-speed rail corridor in Southern California in 1981. The
governor at the time, Jerry Brown, had been a huge supporter of high-speed rail. Brown signed a
27
Mahoney, Christopher. "High-Speed Rail’s Environmental Impact." Tracking News and Events in the Railroad
Industry RSS. November 20, 2011. Accessed July 30, 2015.

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piece of legislation during his first two terms in office, for the studying of high-speed rail28
.
During the mid-1990s, the growing population of the state proved to be a problem on the state’s
roads, airports, and conventional rail lines. This prompted the state to be deemed one of the five
corridors in the U.S. to be considered for high-speed rail planning. In 1993, the Intercity High-
Speed Rail Commission was created to help study the possibility of high-speed rail in the state in
depth. Three years later, the California High-Speed Rail Authority was formed to start laying the
first plans and preparations for a ballot in the late 90s or early 2000s. In addition to this ballot, a
design for the construction of the system was created, that would connect the major metropolitan
areas in the state29
. SB 1856 was passed in 2002 which authorized funding for the system, and in
2008 Proposition 1A was approved by voters to finance the high-speed rail, the first one in the
nation. After receiving funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the
passing of SB 1029 in 2012, and the creation of a budget that tops $68 billion, the California
High-Speed Rail broke ground on January 5, 2015 in the Central Valley.
Existing Plans
The existing plan of the high-speed rail is split up into two phases. Phase one consists of
a rail line running from San Francisco to Los Angeles, with stops along the way in cities such as
San Jose, Fresno, and Bakersfield. Within the San Francisco Bay Area, the train would depart at
Transbay Transit Center and then travel south to San Francisco International Airport (SFO).
Before arriving in San Jose, the line has a number of proposed stations including Redwood City,
and Mountain View. In Southern California, the train is proposed to stop at Burbank Airport,
28
"California: Background." Midwest High Speed Rail Association. Accessed July 18, 2015.
http://www.midwesthsr.org/california-background
29
"About California High-Speed Rail Authority." - California High-Speed Rail Authority. Accessed July 14, 2015.
http://www.hsr.ca.gov/About/index.html.

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Figure 2: California High-
Speed Rail Full System
Map, 2015
before making one of its main stops at Los Angeles Union Station and eventually ending in
Anaheim. Just like the Bay Area, stops are also proposed in between Union Station and
Anaheim. Phase two consists of an extension south from Los Angeles to San Diego, and a
northward extension from Merced to Sacramento.
With these extensions, every major urban area in California will be connected by high-
speed rail, becoming the first in the nation to be so. It will also reduce travel time between the
heavily traveled SF-LA corridor, one of the
most heavily traveled corridors in the world.
Eventually the time to travel between these
two cities, which
on an airplane can
take up to 6
hours, (this including getting to the airport,
going through security etc.) will take an
average of 3 hours and 10 minutes, with
more than 3/4th
of that spend on the actual
train.30
Construction
The high-speed rail line broke ground on January 5, 2015 in Fresno. The first part of construction
entitled Construction Package 1 (CP1) will be consist of a 29-mile stretch between Avenue 17 in
30
Eidlin, Eric. "Making the Most of High-Speed Rail in California: Lessons from France and Germany." 2015.

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Madera County, to East American Avenue in Fresno31
This construction process will create
many jobs in the Fresno area, with over 40 small businesses contributing to the project. The
number of hours of labor spent on the first phase will top 16 million, with over 107 workers on
the project. The other construction phases 2-4 will consist of extending the rail line south, into
Southern California. While phase 5 of the construction of phase 1 is not planned yet, the first
service won’t begin until 2022, with full service beginning from San Francisco to Los Angeles in
2029.
Stops and Job Accessibility
The most important aspect of the high-speed rail is the people in the areas that they will
be serving. Being able to connect the Bay Area to the Greater Los Angeles area will connect 25
million people together by only a short commute, nearly 66 percent of California’s overall
population. In Los Angeles County, stops in Palmdale, the Burbank Airport, and Union Station
will help link people who commute to and from the Los Angeles Basin on a regular basis. This
opens the market up for jobs, as more people are able to live where they choose and have access
to more jobs. The same effect will happen in the Bay Area, with accessibility from the San
Francisco peninsula down to the south bay of San Jose, and eventually into the Central Valley.
With all of this connected, people will also have the ability to have jobs between both major
urban areas. Residents constantly travel back and forth between the two cities for work purposes
via plane. The high-speed rail would reduce the number of people using air travel significantly.
In countries overseas, places like Spain and France have both seen a twenty five to thirty percent
31
"Construction Package One Overview." In California High Speed Rail Association Construction Package.
Sacramento, CA: CAHSR, 2015.

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drop in airplane usage, and an eight percent drop in car usage32
. Both cities are major financial
hubs for the West Coast, United States, and the world. Having quicker access to these places will
positively contribute to the economy.
Figure 3: High-Speed Rail Stops Job and Population Comparison33
Conclusion
The awareness of high-speed rail in America is growing by the day. As California has begun
construction on its high-speed route, people are beginning to take notice. With this notice, the
idea of a country connected through trains that go more than three times the speed of an Amtrak
train, is on the verge of becoming a reality. Though a long way from completion once finished,
the line will benefit people in the state for years to come. With proposed lines in the Atlantic
Northeast corridor, Pacific Northwest34
, and Illinois (Chicago to St. Louis), it’s evident that this
is just the beginning of this phenomena. Other countries have been the model for high-speed rail
32
"High-Speed Mode Shift Study." In California High-Speed Rail Authority. Sacramento, CA: CHSRA, 2014.
33
Eidlin, Eric. "Making the Most of High-Speed Rail in California: Lessons from France and Germany." 2015.
34
"WSDOT - High-Speed Rail Program." WSDOT - High-Speed Rail Program. 2015. Accessed August 4, 2015.
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Rail/highspeedrail.htm.

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for years, and the U.S. has finally realized the potential and benefits of this form of
transportation. Though costly in the beginning, the high-speed rail will pay itself off in the years
to come after completion. The challenge arises with funding. If Americans are willing to help
fund high-speed rail, in addition with federal and state funds, this can become a reality.

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References
1. About California High-Speed Rail Authority." - California High-Speed Rail Authority. Accessed July 14,
2015. http://www.hsr.ca.gov/About/index.html.
2. California: Background." Midwest High Speed Rail Association. Accessed July 18, 2015.
http://www.midwesthsr.org/california-background
3. 1
Collis, Lynne, and Paul Robins. "Developing appropriate automation for signaling and train control on
high speed railways." (2001): 255-260
4. Construction Package One Overview." In California High Speed Rail Association Construction Package.
Sacramento, CA: CAHSR, 2015.
5. Di Justo, “The Physics of High-Speed Trains.”
6. Edkins, Graham D., and Clare M. Pollock. "The influence of sustained attention on railway accidents."
Accident Analysis & Prevention 29, no. 4 (1997): 533-539
7. Eidlin, Eric. "Making the Most of High-Speed Rail in California: Lessons from France and Germany."
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Stephen Popkin. "Fatigue risk management: Organizational factors at the regulatory and industry/company
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11. Green, John. "The Railroad Journey and the Industrial Revolution: Crash Course World History 214."
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Helton, William S., Todd D. Hollander, Joel S. Warm, Lloyd D. Tripp, Kelley Parsons, Gerald Matthews,
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13. High-Speed Mode Shift Study." In California High-Speed Rail Authority. Sacramento, CA: CHSRA, 2014
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Challenges and Establishing a Clear Federal Role. GAO-09-317 ed. Vol. March 2009. Washington, D.C.,
2009. 22-25.
15. Hood, Christopher P. (2007). Shinkansen – From Bullet Train to Symbol of Modern Japan. Routledge,
London. pp. 18–43.
16. James, Randy. "A Brief History of High-Speed Rail." Time. April 20, 2009. Accessed July 17, 2015
17. Japan Railway & Transport Review No. 11 pp.60–63
18. 1
Mahoney, Christopher. "High-Speed Rail’s Environmental Impact." Tracking News and Events in the
Railroad Industry RSS. November 20, 2011. Accessed July 30, 2015
19. Olson, Rebecca L., Richard J. Hanowski, Jeffrey S. Hickman, and Joseph L. Bocanegra. Driver distraction
in commercial vehicle operations. No. FMCSA-RRR-09-042. 2009
20. Patrick di Justo, “The Physics of High-Speed Trains,” The New Yorker, July 25th
, 2013,
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-physics-of-high-speed-trains.
21. Price, Jana M., and Bruce G. Coury. "A Method for Applying Fatigue Science to Accident Investigation."
Reviews of Human Factors and Ergonomics 10, no. 1 (2015): 79-114
22. Richard Jackson, “The European Train Control System (ETCS) – A Beginner’s Guide,” Velocity Network
no. 73 (2011): 23.
23. Sourabh Bodas, “High Speed Train – The Infrastructure,” Science as I see it, May 7, 2011, http://science-
as-i-see-it.blogspot.com/2011/05/high-speed-train-infrastructure.html
24. Todorovich, Petra, and Daniel Schned. High-speed Rail: International Lessons for U.S. Policy Makers.
25. WSDOT - High-Speed Rail Program." WSDOT - High-Speed Rail Program. 2015. Accessed August 4, 2015.
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Rail/highspeedrail.htm

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