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U.S. Department of Transportation awards $6.1 billion in funding for high-speed rail projects in the American West

2023-12-06T14:36:00-05:00

The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced $6.1 billion in funding for two high-speed rail projects in Nevada and California that will make history upon their respective completions at the end of the decade.

Both the $8 billion Brightline West plan connecting Southern California to Las Vegas and the California High-Speed Rail project between Los Angeles and San Francisco will receive a total of $3 billion and $3.07 billion each.

The funding will help propel the former towards a formal project announcement that is expected by Friday, according to Reuters. The latter will aid in the development of a pared-down version of the larger California project that has been plagued by funding challenges for several years.

Brightline’s chairman Wes Edens told Reuters the funding marks a “historic moment that will serve as a foundation for a new industry and a remarkable project that will serve a...

California's high-speed rail project receives $202 million in federal funding for critical juncture

2023-09-26T13:28:00-04:00

The California High-Speed Rail Authority has been awarded more than $200 million from the Biden Administration in what is one of the largest pieces of federal funding awarded to the project in its history. The $202 million grant was made by the U.S. Department of Transportation through the 2022 Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program — part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021.

The latest funding reduces some of the $128 billion burden incurred by the project, which had been teetering on the edge before the state allocated enough funding to complete a critical 171-mile stretch in California’s Central Valley. The federal money will be put specifically towards six grade separations needed to create a clear path for motor vehicles in Kern County.

The High-Speed Rail Authority’s Northern California Director Boris Lipkin said recently that the project can only be completed faster than is currently projected with the help of increased federal support given its engineering complexities.

The state, which finally began the two-step procurement process for the “first-in-the-nation” 220 mph electrified high-speed trainsets last month, said its full realization is on track for 2033 in their latest Project Update Report from March of this year.

Foster + Partners and Arup to deliver first four California High-Speed Rail stations

2023-04-05T17:45:00-04:00

A joint venture of Foster + Partners and Arup will design the first four California High-Speed Rail stations in the state’s Central Valley region, the firms announced this week.

The plans they are developing for the transit organization will eventually deliver stations in Fresno, Kings/Tulare, Merced, and Bakersfield, serving the ambitious but still heavily scrutinized project’s initial 171-mile segment in an area that’s home to roughly 6.5 million people.

The joint venture announced its intentions of working with local interests during the two-stage Notice to Proceed (NTP) design and development process following the delivery of a "system-wide vision plan" for the proposed 500-mile project that will become America's first-ever high-speed railway.

Image courtesy Foster + Partners

Stefan Behling, Head of Studio for Foster + Partners, said: "After delivering our systemwide vision plan, we are now delighted to be working with Arup on detailed designs for the network’s first four station...

California’s High Speed Rail costs balloon again to $128 billion

2023-03-20T19:41:00-04:00

The price tag for the rail system has risen to $128 billion, according to a California High Speed Rail Authority project update report — a nearly 22% uptick from the previous figure of $105 billion from last year and a far cry from the $33 billion cost voters approved in 2008. The latest increases are due to “inflation/escalation, enhanced scope definition and greater contingency for risk,” per the report.

The cost imbalance has reportedly pushed back the Merced-to-Bakersefield segment’s targeted start of service from 2030 by up to three years, according to the CEO of the Rail Authority Brian P. Kelly.

Plans now are for at least the 119-mile segment that’s currently under construction in the Central Valley to be completed while the project waits on the tens of billions worth of outstanding federal grant funding that are still pending approval by the government.

The headache mirrors the troubles the HS2 line is having in England. In his report to the state, Kelly lamented the hamstrung funding, saying: “Megaprojects that last for decades need long-term, stable funding. Every country around the world that has built high-speed rail has dedicated billions of dollars over several decades to see it through. We don’t have one penny of state support for this project identified after 2030.”

California high-speed rail project secures critical $4.2B for Central Valley line

2022-07-06T13:41:00-04:00

After wrangling over the future of California’s high-speed rail, state lawmakers plan to release a critical batch of money to finish a bullet train in the Central Valley while also establishing an inspector general to audit the beleaguered project and authorizing billions of dollars in new money for rail plans across the state.

Following a sizable $97.5 billion state budget surplus, California lawmakers last week agreed to allocate $4.2 billion in bond funds needed to finish the ambitious high-speed rail project's 171-mile Central Valley portion which is expected to connect Bakersfield with Merced by 2030, according to current estimates.

California's high-speed rail project could be going in a new direction

2022-03-15T12:12:00-04:00

14 years after voters approved a nearly $10 billion bond to start building the rail system that would whisk riders from Los Angeles to San Francisco at speeds of more than 200 miles per hour, many California residents have long since lost track of what is being built where, and when or if it will ever be completed. “We’re teetering on the edge,” said Ashley Swearengin, a former mayor of Fresno who now leads the Central Valley Community Foundation. “We could get it right.”

The budget for the California high-speed rail project has now swelled to more than double its originally proposed cost of $40 billion from fourteen years ago. Construction on a 31-mile segment of the project has already begun near Fresno in the Central Valley.

The fight now is over whether or not to complete the segment, which would run through only three counties; or, as the state’s Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon is calling for, to focus on the “bookends” (San Fransico and Los Angeles) in a cost-saving venture that would maintain at least some portion of the rail’s original intent and purpose to unite the two most populous nodes.

“The project is by all objective measures in distress,” Rendon told the Times. “Connecting the two largest urban areas in the state is the best thing we can do from an environmental standpoint and an economic development standpoint. To link two cities in the Central Valley would doom the project.”

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Nowhere fast: California's High-Speed Rail project is now twice the size of its originally proposed budget

2022-02-16T20:50:00-05:00

The cost to build California’s ambitious but long delayed high-speed rail line has once again risen, with rail officials now estimating it could take up to $105 billion to finish the line from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The project’s price tag has steadily risen since voters first approved nearly $10 billion in bond money for it in 2008, when the total cost was pegged at $40 billion.

The additional need for money stems from necessary sound barrier upgrades and repositioning of the train away from the Central Valley’s Cesar E. Chavez National Monument, according to project officials. The state is confident it can raise the necessary funds from the new federal infrastructure bill, which includes about $55 billion in allocations for transit grants over the next four years.

The 500-mile-long project is still severely lagging in the area of public funding but has nevertheless managed to acquire about 90% of the land parcels needed to complete the project, according to an updated 2022 budget plan released by the California High Speed Rail Authority. A portion of the project is also being funded by the state’s cap-and-trade program, which has been itself been under-resourced as a partial result of the reduction in travel caused by the coronavirus.

High-speed rail project linking Las Vegas and Southern California takes step forward

2020-07-08T14:56:00-04:00

DesertXpress Enterprises LLC, an affiliate of Virgin Trains USA, has struck a lease deal with the California DOT (Caltrans) for a right of way along Interstate 15 as part of its $4.8 billion, 170-mile XpressWest bullet train from Southern California to Las Vegas.

First mentioned on Archinect last September, the planned 170-mile long high-speed rail line that could connect Las Vegas with Southern California's Apple Valley station, about 90 miles northeast of Downtown Los Angeles, is making progress.

XpressWest, a Brightline company and subsidiary of Virgin Trains USA, has reached a lease agreement with the California Department of Transportation to use existing State right-of-way along Interstate 15.

According to the official Caltrans announcement, an environmental study estimated that "the completed project will reduce carbon emissions by 300,000 metric tons a year – the equivalent of removing nearly 65,000 vehicles off the road."

The privately financed project hopes to break ground later this year and reach completion in 2023.

SoCal-Las Vegas Virgin bullet train to begin construction next year

2019-12-19T09:00:00-05:00

While construction on the long-talked-about high-speed train between Las Vegas and Southern California is slated to begin next year, work probably won’t start in Nevada until the following year. Virgin Trains USA could break ground in the second half of 2020 on the 170-mile route between Southern Nevada and the Victor Valley area of Southern California...

The project is expected to be completed in 2023, but, according to state Department of Business Director Terry Reynolds, it cannot commence construction until the "record of decision" is received by the Federal Railroad Administration, reports Review-Journal.

100 MPH commuter rail plan could modernize San Diego's highways

2019-10-22T12:47:00-04:00

The San Diego Association of Governments’ ambitious rail plan includes laying hundreds of miles of track throughout the county to connect residential areas to these job centers. Agency experts are analyzing the region’s commuter patterns in an attempt to design rail service that lures commuters off the most congested highway corridors. The lines, many of which are planned as subways, will go through existing residential areas with the added aim of encouraging dense development along the routes.

The ambitious plan could be funded by a series of sales tax increases, which would have to be approved by local voters.

SANDAG Executive Director Hasan Ikhrata told The San Diego Union-Tribune, “I think this region is more suited to follow-up with transit-oriented development than any other region in the country,” adding, “All California and the U.S. is designed around the car, around the interstate system. It took 50 years to have the land-use we have. It’s going to take 50 years to reverse it with the rail.”

Delivery of high-speed rail between Los Angeles and Anaheim could be sped up

2019-10-09T15:30:00-04:00

Ridership on Metrolink would double between Burbank and Anaheim, relieving freeway congestion, and new high-speed electric trains would slash emissions along the route under a plan that would shift up to $5.5 billion from the bullet train project in the Central Valley to Southern California.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the California High-Speed Rail Authority could funnel a portion of the $20.5 billion already earmarked for the state's new train system toward a high-speed link connecting Southern California.

The funding would improve regional commuter rail services offered by Metrolink, which operates 528 miles of track across the area, by boosting train speeds up to 125 miles-per-hour along certain stretches of the route.

Fire engulfs Foster + Partners-designed High-Speed Rail station in Saudi Arabia

2019-09-30T15:15:00-04:00

Arab News reports that the fire broke out at the Suleimaniyah rail station on Sunday in Jeddah, leaving five injured.

Saudi Arabia’s Haramain High-Speed Railway opened in 2018 and ferried Hajj pilgrims throughout the country for the first time earlier this year. The line’s five stations, including the one at Jeddah that caught fire, are designed by Foster + Partners and Buro Happold.

View of one of the four Foster + Partners-designed stations along the HHR line. Image courtesy of Nigel Young / Foster + Partners, © Nigel Young.

According to various social media posts, the fire burned out of control into Monday morning. Firefighters took roughly 12 hours to fully bring the blaze under control. A cause for the fire has not been discovered or announced.

Construction Week Online reports that the fire damaged the second floor and roof of the station but that the ground and first floors of the complex had been spared. The publication also reported that Saudi Arabia's Minister of Transpo...

Texas High-Speed Rail route takes a big step forward

2019-09-16T12:45:00-04:00

Texas Central, the private company developing the Texas Bullet Train, announced it had signed a deal with Salini Impregilo, the Italian construction giant, and its American subsidiary, Lane Construction, to design, construct and install the 240-mile high-speed rail line using Japan’s Shinkansen trains.

The plan to build a 90-minute bullet train between Dallas and Houston still requires a number of local, state, and federal approvals before it can move forward.

Nonetheless, backers of the project are raising funding for the initiative and setting out to complete early design work. Texas Central optimistically hopes to break ground sometime in 2020.

Saudi Arabia’s new high-speed rail ferries Hajj pilgrims for the first time

2019-08-12T14:00:00-04:00

High-speed rail service will be available for the first time this year during Hajj, the pilgrimage by Muslims to Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca. Some of the millions of pilgrims expected to make the journey will be riding Haramain High Speed Rail, which links Mecca to Medina and passes through three stations: Jeddah, King Abdul Aziz International Airport and King Abdullah Economic City in Rabigh.

The route's four larger-than-life train stations are designed by Foster + Partners and BuroHappold as international gateways for each host city, and are based on traditional and ancient design motifs that prioritize the creation of breezy spaces that are protected from the sun.

Kazuyo Sejima envisions "camouflaged" design for Seibu's new bullet train

2016-03-15T18:20:00-04:00

Working with [Seibu Group's] design team, [Sejima] has proposed a concept for [their] 'Red Arrow' series that would be one with the environment, melding into the background as it travels through city and countryside. The plan represents a sharp deviation from train designs of the past, which have emphasized a bold, striking look through slick lines and bright colors. In contrast, Sejima has chosen keywords like 'friendly' and 'soft' to define her new vision for express trains in Japan.

U.S. needs reliable rail systems where 'traveling 106 mph is considered slow', U.S. PIRG asserts amid Amtrak debate

2015-05-15T20:40:00-04:00

In an unfortunate sequence of events, reports earlier this week state that the U.S. House Appropriations Committee voted to cut Amtrak funding by an estimated $260 million -- one day after a fatal Amtrak passenger-train derailment in Philadelphia on May 12. As investigations on the accident ensue, public debate regarding the nation's transportation needs has reignited.

In one response, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group consumer organization released their latest statement by Transportation Campaign Director John Olivieri. Olivieri stresses in a "if they can do it, so can we" manner that it's about time American policy makers catch up with international competitors and invest on designing a safe high-speed passenger rail system.

Below is Olivieri's statement from the U.S. PIRG website:

"'This is a horrible tragedy, and our condolences go to those whose family and friends have been lost or injured. Events like this must be prevented.'

'Our policy makers should take the long view. We...

Don't write off Elon Musk's Hyperloop yet...

2014-12-19T14:02:00-05:00

A Hyperloop in California could be built within a decade, for between $7 and $16 billion and there are no technical showstoppers, Ahlborn says. In other words, while Musk’s initial estimate of $4 billion was somewhat optimistic, it wasn’t exceptionally far off, especially given that Ahlborn believes the ultimate number for the hyperloop between San Francisco and Los Angeles would come in toward the lower end of the range.

Baltimore-DC High Speed Train Secures $5bn in Funding

2014-09-15T18:08:00-04:00

An investor group hoping to build a high-speed train capable of cutting the travel time between Baltimore and Washington to 15 minutes says in a filing to state regulators that it has lined up more than $5 billion in financial backing. The commitment is from the Japanese government, which hopes to showcase the technology behind superconducting magnetic levitation or “maglev” trains to an American audience […]

The article notes that the maglev train has detractors, many of whom complain at the cost, which is far higher than other high-speed rails like those currently being built in California. For more information on the California project, check out the Atlantic's coverage here.

Meanwhile, Joanna Symons of the Telegraph rode around Japan to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the bullet train.

Hyperloop still far from frictionless reality

2014-01-17T14:09:00-05:00

What we do know: the Hyperloop is a fantastic, gee-whiz! prospect that, in an idealized and seamless application, would get between A and B faster than we ever imagined. But whether the Hyperloop actually can (or should) be built is still very much unclear. Ever since Elon Musk (PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX) first proposed the Hyperloop last year, his "white paper" plan caused a flurry of excitement and criticism for a project that was still technically quite vague but so futurist (especially as an alternative to California High-Speed Rail's lumbering difficulties) that people loved shouting about it, whether for or against.

But since then, how has the Hyperloop project developed? Focus has shifted a bit away from Musk onto Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc., an engineering startup backed by JumpStartFund, a Californian crowd-funding/sourcing platform. The founders of HTT, Patricia Galloway and Marco Villa, are now organizing efforts to actually build the thing (or at l...

L.A. to S.F. in 30 Minutes: Tesla's Hyperloop Would Make CA's High-Speed Rail Blush

2013-08-13T12:43:00-04:00

Hyperloop is a new mode of transport that seeks to change this [transit] paradigm by being both fast and inexpensive for people and goods. Hyperloop is also unique in that it is an open design concept, similar to Linux. Feedback is desired from the community that can help advance the Hyperloop design and bring it from concept to reality.

CEO of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, posted on the Tesla blog his proposal for an alternative to the California High-Speed Rail plan, the Hyperloop. The solar-powered transportation system is proposed to function somewhat like a pneumatic tube, where capsules of up to 28 passengers on air-bearings are transported between Los Angeles and San Francisco in about 30 minutes.

Read Musk's entire proposal here.

Feedback and contributions to the Hyperloop design should be directed to: hyperloop@spacex.com or hyperloop@teslamotors.com.