Proposition 1A passed in this years election here in California, allocating 10 Billion dollars to build the first leg of a statewide system of high speed trains. The first leg would run from Anaheim's new ARTIC train station up to Los Angeles Union Station before heading up the San Joaquin Valley with a final terminus in downtown San Francisco at the Transbay Terminal near the Embarcadero.
Future legs that would need to be funded by additional bond measures costing billions of dollars would link San Diego, Oakland and Sacramento with the existing trunk line from Anaheim to San Fran. Optimists within the state government are saying the first trains could be running in six years, but outside skeptics say it will be at least a decade before anyone boards the first train.
I'm just wondering if tourists would find this type of thing useful or not? Would you include a day or two in San Francisco into your Disneyland/SoCal vacation if you could board in the Anaheim station and be in downtown San Fran in two and a half hours? There is no word yet on what the fees will be, but they are reported to be competitive with current Amtrak and airline prices, which range between 75 and 150 dollars for the trip from John Wayne Airport to SFO. The Amtrak route from Anaheim to Oakland takes 10 hours currently. The plane is 45 minutes, but you have to tack on several hours for transit to and from airports and time spent at the airport.
The benefit of course is that the ARTIC station is just 10 blocks from Disneyland, and the Transbay Terminal is right in downtown San Francisco. The unfortunate thing is that the route does not take you along the stunningly scenic coast that the Amtrak Coast Starlight takes from LA to Oakland, but instead heads inland through the flat and brown farmlands of the San Joaquin Valley. It won't be pretty to look at, but it will be fast.
http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/
Future legs that would need to be funded by additional bond measures costing billions of dollars would link San Diego, Oakland and Sacramento with the existing trunk line from Anaheim to San Fran. Optimists within the state government are saying the first trains could be running in six years, but outside skeptics say it will be at least a decade before anyone boards the first train.
I'm just wondering if tourists would find this type of thing useful or not? Would you include a day or two in San Francisco into your Disneyland/SoCal vacation if you could board in the Anaheim station and be in downtown San Fran in two and a half hours? There is no word yet on what the fees will be, but they are reported to be competitive with current Amtrak and airline prices, which range between 75 and 150 dollars for the trip from John Wayne Airport to SFO. The Amtrak route from Anaheim to Oakland takes 10 hours currently. The plane is 45 minutes, but you have to tack on several hours for transit to and from airports and time spent at the airport.
The benefit of course is that the ARTIC station is just 10 blocks from Disneyland, and the Transbay Terminal is right in downtown San Francisco. The unfortunate thing is that the route does not take you along the stunningly scenic coast that the Amtrak Coast Starlight takes from LA to Oakland, but instead heads inland through the flat and brown farmlands of the San Joaquin Valley. It won't be pretty to look at, but it will be fast.
http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/
