California High Speed Rail

[Dakguy201]

Mr. Porter is the first person I have seen whose total post count is zero after his post!  Can you say "software bug"?

 

 

 

[burbridge07]

I do not understand the logic in constructing a heavy maintenance base anywhere with the Central Valley of California or do I understand why the very first phase of actual construction of Very High Speed Rail should start in this said region.

When I look at a drawing of the purposed California High Speed Rail System or Network, I not that it has a stem with four branches.  Because of this configuration, there is only one place to put a Primary Heavy Maintenance Base and this is at the southernmost terminus (the San Diego, California Area).  By placing the facility here, it becomes possible to directly channel trains into maintenance without engaging in non-revenue train operation over very long distances which ultimately leads to millions of dollars spent on electrical power consumption, extended employee, work hours, unnecessary ware and tare on train equipment, increase scheduling concerns and unnecessary general administrative activities on a yearly basis. 

Becuse it would be extremely difficult to build a primary maintenance base in the San Diego region due to such issues as zoning requirements, dense residential and commercial development extending all the way to the Mexican border, I find it proper to place said base within the confines of the Los Angeles Metropolitan area...namely, alongside the Los Angeles River north and/or south of Union Station.

Actual construction of CHSR should start at its southernmost end without consideration being given to the location of the primary maintenance base, command control and the primary electrical power station, and extend to Los Angeles, California.  However, it would be wise to extend this first phase of construction to Bakersfield, California.  This section of electrified high speed rail-line incorporates all the complexities in this particular from of construction including elevating, tunneling, trenching (absolutely no at grade construction), and sound proofing in populated areas.  Once construction is completed, it would be possible to dispatch high speed trains between Los Angeles and San Diego ever ten minutes if that were to ever become necessary, but realistically, it would be logical to dispath not-stop express trains between the said cities once each half hour during certain portions of the twenty-four hour day with local service as may be required.  This Starter System or First Phase on Actual Construction REPRESENTS A WORKING SYSTEM of approximately two hundred and sixty-eight miles of Very High Speed Electrified Rail Transport that if fully capable of providing sufficient proof of the value and on-going benefits of high speed rail in moving both people and good in a cost affective manner while generating millions in indirect economic and social benefits.

I believe that is reasonable for me to conclude that thirty-five million dollars per mile is possible especially when portions of the system is constructed on a established row such as the medium of an interstate highway, but when I look at such things as tunneling, trenching, elevating and sometime, hostile land acquisitions, the cost quickly escalates to an average of fifty million dollars per mile of construction and can go as high as seventy million dollar per mile of actual construction.

When reviewing all major aspects of the CHSR project, and from a personal and non-professional perspective, the terrain features, the population centers and farmlands clearly indicate that the cost of construct is set somewhat high due to over sixty miles of tunneling, trenching and no allowances to any portion of the system to be placed at-grade.  When crossing agricultural land and in otherwise desolate places, the System must be constructed on twenty-six foot pillars (columns), so that irrigation and animal migration is not interfered with.  The only reason this particular system is saved from the seventy million dollar figure is the fact there are not extremely expensive legalisms to contend with throughout the whole, and being spared some very complex tunneling, especially under developed area aside from the tunneling already mentioned.  However, in the case of the Los Angeles to San Diego portion of the System, the construction cost should not exceed sixty million per mile or a total cost of $9,780,000,000.00.  This is the estimated cost of actual construction of railway right-of-way, electrification, advanced train control and Command Center but it does not include the cost of rolling stock (the actual train-sets), the primary maintenance base and test track, passenger terminals, power station (coal-fired electric generating power plant), and legalisms which should add an additional eight billion dollars to the total bill making this STARTER SYSTEM a $19,780,000,000.00 PROJECT or if extended to Bakersfield the final figure should be around $26,780,000,000.00.