{"id":34591,"date":"2024-06-29T11:47:40","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T18:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=34591"},"modified":"2024-06-29T11:47:41","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T18:47:41","slug":"california-approves-final-high-speed-rail-link-connecting-s-f-to-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/06\/29\/california-approves-final-high-speed-rail-link-connecting-s-f-to-los-angeles\/","title":{"rendered":"California approves final high-speed rail link connecting S.F. to Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By\u00a0Ricardo Cano<\/a>,ReporterJune 27, 2024 (SFChronicle.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This rendering shows the type of electrified high-speed rail train California plans to run in the San Joaquin Valley. The state\u2019s High-Speed Rail Authority voted Thursday to approve the final piece of track pathway that would connect Los Angeles to the Bay Area.TNS<\/em><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

California\u2019s bullet train project<\/a> reached a major milestone: The entire 463-mile route from San Francisco to Los Angeles is now environmentally cleared for construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The High-Speed Rail Authority\u2019s board signed off Thursday on a preferred route and environmental clearance for the 38-mile segment that would carry bullet trains from Palmdale to Burbank. It was the project\u2019s last segment between San Francisco and Los Angeles that had yet to be cleared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The high-speed rail segments linking the Central Valley to\u00a0Silicon Valley<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0San Francisco<\/a>\u00a0gained environmental clearance in 2022, and construction has been underway in the Central Valley, the project\u2019s initial operating segment, for almost a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday\u2019s approval is more than a historic milestone \u2014 it closes the gap between Los Angeles and San Francisco,\u201d Tom Richards, chair of the rail authority\u2019s board, said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authority officials say they expect to gain approval of a 33-mile segment from Los Angeles to Anaheim by next year. That approval would clear environmental hurdles for the project\u2019s entire \u201cPhase 1\u201d route that was sold to the state\u2019s voters in 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bullet train service on the Central Valley segment \u2014 171 miles from Bakersfield to Merced \u2014 is expected to start between 2030 and 2033, featuring four huge stations<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rail project faces significant financial and logistical questions<\/a> as it seeks to finish construction and expand beyond the Central Valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project is $7 billion short of completing the Central Valley segment and needs $100 billion to finish the route from San Francisco to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authority officials have not yet decided where they will build out the project next, but they will encounter challenges both north and south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connecting Merced to San Jose will require tunneling 15 miles of tracks through Pacheco Pass in the Diablo Range. The Palmdale-to-Burbank segment will necessitate boring 30 miles of tunnels that will run along State Route 14 and underneath the community of Acton,  Angeles National Forest and the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authority\u2019s Board of Directors spent much of Thursday\u2019s vote debating whether the mountainous segment and its tunnels would be able to withstand a major earthquake. Authority officials said they planned to present more details on the segment\u2019s tunneling work early next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are at a very preliminary stage of design only for environmental purposes,\u201d authority CEO Brian Kelly told the Board of Directors Thursday. \u201cThe next steps on this are to bring that design work forward, further geotechnical work, understand exactly what the challenges are in construction and make sure we\u2019re doing the remedies correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reach Ricardo Cano: ricardo.cano@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @ByRicardoCano<\/p>\n\n\n\n

June 27, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Ricardo Cano<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

REPORTER<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ricardo Cano covers transportation for The San Francisco Chronicle. Before joining The Chronicle in 2021, he covered K-12 education at CalMatters based in Sacramento and at The Arizona Republic in Phoenix as the newspaper\u2019s education reporter. He received his bachelor\u2019s degree in journalism at Fresno State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/bayarea\/article\/california-high-speed-rail-19542125.php?utm_content=cta&sid=53b8a5219dbcd4db6500018b&ss=P&st_rid=null&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=headlines&utm_campaign=sfc_morningfix<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Ricardo Cano,ReporterJune 27, 2024 (SFChronicle.com) This rendering shows the type of electrified high-speed rail train California plans to run in the San Joaquin Valley. The state\u2019s High-Speed Rail Authority voted Thursday to approve the final piece of track pathway that would connect Los Angeles to the Bay Area.TNS California\u2019s bullet… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34591"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34594,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34591\/revisions\/34594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}