My Russian engineer colleague said "Project schedule is witchcraft."In my experience, for any project involving rail construction in the US, it is prudent to add 3 to 5 years to the original projected date, irrespective of what it involves.And depending on the complexity, doubling the cost before it is all said and done, is usually not outside the realm of possibilities, though there are a few exceptions I can think of. Brightline Florida is not an example of an exception BTW IIRC.
Brightline West is also serving the LA area at Rancho Cucamonga, which is a considerable distance from the center of the LA metro area. If they tried building a high-speed line all the way to LA, it would take many additional years and billions more $$$$. I think their long-term plan is to operate service into LA on CA High-Speed Rail whenever that gets built (hopefully some time in the 21st Century.) Right now, an LA-Vegas trip will involve a change of trains with Metrolink at Rancho Cucamonga (or maybe they'll run through on Metrolink tracks, but it won't be high speed rail from Rancho Cucamonga to LA.) Or else people will just drive to Rancho Cucamonga, this being LA, after all.
They will need to at least electrify to LAX (Amtrak) which will as usual cost a pretty penny in and of itself, the way things go around here.
They won't be for now, San Bernardo line has major capacity issues with long single track sections that are a challenge to fix given the location.
Oh I agree. I was just pointing out that there are significant cost items even if there was available capacity.
There would be alternatives . Maybe most comfortable for passengers but maybe problematic operationally would be a diesel locomotive to drag the high speed set . There are precedents for this in france for example where in the past TGV sets have been dragged (this is no longer necessary today as the line in question has been electrified) . The next best solution would be a timed connection with thru tickets and seat reservations and that will wait for a late running connecting train .
Since there is no capacity for any additional traffic on the line in question, through service won't happen, as has been pointed out a few posts above.
A concept drawing shows the Rancho station integrated with a large parking garage.
That's huge. I guess that explains why they were teasing construction in Vegas yesterday. I'm gonna be honest, I was worried they weren't gonna get that grant.
Sounds like they're going to be the big winner under the National Network heading for this year. They are receiving $3 billion of the $4.5 billion to be awarded and will probably most certainly get the most money of any program given this first year will be the most amount awarded.
its phased not all in 1 go based on what I know
Ahh so over the scope of the four years? So maybe there will be some additional awards Friday as well. Clearly though this project is going to be one of the biggest winners in the bill.
It did, NC/VA got 1B, CAHSR got 3B and thats just what we know so far
idk over how many years.
Its nothing new, we know BLW was looking at a Siemens Velaro Nova, they've just now rebranded the unit for NA
And the Siemens web site notes that the American Pioneer "scales steep terrain" and is capable of maintaining speed on the grades present between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga.
Yes. BTW, these are not just locomotives but full length articulated train sets with distributed power, that is trucks under many cars of the train have motors.
Is it too late for amtrak to cancel their acela 2 project with Alstom?
