Ground-breaking for the first high-speed rail system in the United States begins tomorrow (January 6) in Fresno. The California High-Speed Rail Authority has plotted a route that will run for 800 miles with as many as 24 stations between Sacramento and San Diego.
The stated mission is to “connect the mega-regions of the state, contribute to economic development and a cleaner environment, create jobs and preserve agricultural and protected lands.” But the implications stretch out even further: Imagine the educational, artistic and cultural boundaries that will open up with these train tracks.
The first priority is to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles with a ride that will take under three hours. Though there are no firm details about how relatively cheap or expensive high-speed rail service will be for riders, one fact sheet from the Authority has made projections “based on average HSR fares that are 83% of assumed San Francisco-Los Angeles one-way airfare of $97.”
Unfortunately, the bullet train between SF and LA isn’t projected to be completed until 2029, so there’s a lot of time to daydream about just how amazing and insane this is probably going to be. Especially if you’ve lived and loved in both cities enough to know and appreciate how wildly different they are and yearn for how they’d each benefit from a closer connection.
[via NBC Bay Area, Bullet train renderings from California High-Speed Rail Authority]
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