High Speed Rail
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Nature’s Unsung Helper
Stephen O'Brien has been coaxing an oasis out of a most unlikely environment for a long time: the small green patches at either end of the ground level Mission Street frontage of the Transbay Terminal. He started back in 1958, when the old Key System train tracks that used to bring East Bay electric streetcars to the Transbay Terminal were being torn out. The Transbay Terminal in those days was a crucial commuter hub, bringing passengers from all over the East Bay. If you've ever ridden the F bus from Berkeley to San Francisco, you've ridden on the descendant of the same-lettered streetcar that once transported you from downtown Berkeley to downtown San Francisco just a minute longer than BART does today!
October 8, 2009
California Applies for $4.7 Billion in High-Speed Rail Stimulus Funds
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today that the state has applied for $4.7 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus money for the California High Speed Rail Authority (CAHSRA) to start the nation's most ambitious high speed rail project.
October 2, 2009
High-Speed Rail Routes and the Looming Choice Among ‘Megaregions’
They may sound like villains in the next Transformers
movie, but "megaregions" are a vital aspect of U.S. life these days.
The vast majority of the nation lives in one of the 11 inter-city
clusters identified by America 2050 in its new analysis of the future of high-speed rail, making megaregions the best potential sites for rail development.
September 18, 2009
Toward a Positive Argument for High-Speed Rail
In recent weeks, I've been busily making what you might call a
negative argument for high-speed rail -- pointing out the many ways in
which arguments against HSR are deficient. That's all well and good,
but positive cases for HSR need to be made, as well.
August 28, 2009
High Speed Rail Authority Says Ruling Won’t Affect Timeline or Funding
A Sacramento judge ruled this week that the California High Speed Rail Authority failed to provide an adequate description of the San Francisco to Los Angeles high speed train project in its Environmental Impact Report. Critics of the project hailed it as an important victory, but the fine print of the decision may leave less room for their celebration, as the court rejected contentions about the project's route, biological impacts, and ability to induce sprawl in the Central Valley.
August 27, 2009
Ed Glaeser’s Rail Fail
The story so far: Ed Glaeser recently began an effort to assess the costs and benefits of constructing high-speed rail lines at the New York Times' Economix blog. Last week, he posted
his first substantive take on the issue, an attempt to estimate direct
costs and benefits from a hypothetical line between Houston and Dallas.
August 12, 2009
Senate Panel Backs $1.2B for High-Speed Rail, $1.2B Extra for Highways
The Senate panel in charge of transportation spending has just released its version of the budget bill that passed the House last week, giving less to high-speed rail and more to highways than the lower chamber of Congress.
July 29, 2009
The High-Speed Rail Numbers Game: Is $13 Billion and 110 MPH Enough?
High-speed rail is one of the Obama administration's most prized policy goals, with $13 billion getting earmarked in the coming year alone to help break ground on up to 11 proposed regional corridors. But what will the U.S. get for its money? A lively Senate hearing yesterday attempted to answer that question.
June 24, 2009
U.S. Dot Clocks High-Speed Rail at 110 MPH, Give or Take
The federal DOT has just released its guidance
for states seeking a share of its $8 billion in high-speed rail funding
-- and tucked in the rules are standards that could prove crucial to
the project's success.
June 17, 2009
“Shovel Ready” High Speed Rail? CA Is Ahead of the Game
Yesterday,
Vice President Joe Biden, met with governors from eight different
states that are competing for High Speed Rail funding. Streetsblog's
D.C. Correspondent wrote a story about the national implications
of the meeting available at our New York site. While neither
Schwarzenegger nor another representative from California was present,
there was good news for California. From today's Times,
June 4, 2009