Last week, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote to DOT Secretary Ray LaHood regarding a proposed “demonstration” high speed rail run from Los Angeles to San Diego on existing infrastructure. It would have an implementation date of November of this year. Schwarzenneger-Lahood Demo Train First, it’s important to emphasize what the letter does not suggest.  This would [...]

by Rafael Note from Robert: This is one in a series of posts from Rafael thinking about different ways that we could route California HSR. It should be noted that the Merced-Fresno Alternatives Analysis has some very clear options on how to deal with much of this segment, although north of Merced is less settled [...]

Earlier this week, the Union Pacific Railroad distributed to the media, particuarly the San Jose Mercury News, their letter to the Authority of April 23, 2010.  In it they outline their most forceful position thus far of not cooperating with high speed rail.  Significantly, their letter above asserts the following claims: No overpass or underpass [...]

Although the San Francisco-San José Alternatives Analysis dominated the news this week, the CHSRA board discussed a draft AA for another segment – Merced to Fresno. Two alignments were eliminated, and two will be carried forward for further study. The two that were eliminated (follow along on page 4 of this document for a map [...]