California high-speed rail corridor extended to Las Vegas

DOT studying Houston extension

Steve Hawley, Jul 08, 09.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood extended the federally-designated California High-Speed Rail Corridor to Las Vegas last week, according to the Houston Chronicle. The extension would run from Las Vegas to Victorville, California, where it would connect to the rest of California.

The Chronicle states that the designation will be “minimal,” and that the extension will not be included in California’s initial application for federal funds. The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act allocated $8 billion for high-speed rail, with the first funds scheduled to be distributed in September, and President Obama has set aside another $5 billion for high-speed rail over the next five years.

According to the article, LaHood said that the freeway congestion along I-15 between Las Vegas and Los Angeles is “very bad for business, very bad for safety and certainly very bad for the environment.” In a press release, he added, “The extension of the California corridor is another great example of regional cooperation, which will be critical to transforming travel in America and the creation of a national system of high-speed rail lines.”

But the Transportation Blog at the Dallas Morning News asks, “If [Senator and Majority Leader] Harry Reid can convince the Obama Administration to extend the California high-speed passenger rail corridor eastward to Las Vegas, why can’t one of our folks in Congress do the same to connect the route that runs west to Houston to the one that runs south through Austin?”

The Federal Railroad Administration has identified ten high-speed rail corridors, in addition to the existing Acela corridor connecting Washington, DC to Boston. The South Central Corridor would link San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas-Fort Worth to cities in Oklahoma and Arkansas, while the Gulf Coast Corridor would connect Houston to New Orleans and Atlanta. Under this plan, Houston would not be linked to the rest of Texas by high-speed rail.

Separately, the Texas High-Speed Rail Corporation, led by former Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, has called for a “Texas T-Bone” route connecting Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio by 2020. The T-Bone concept was developed by local and state officials working with stakeholders, and it has substantial political support.

The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act, signed in October, directs LaHood to study extending the South Central Corridor to the Port of Houston, as well as potentially to a point in far south Texas. Secretary LaHood must release his findings by October 2009.

It appears unlikely that Texas will receive any of the initial high-speed rail funding. However, the proposed House transportation bill calls for an additional $50 billion for high-speed rail over six years, although the bill appears unlikely to pass until at least the end of 2010.

Comments

rafael said:

If Texans want an express HSR (186mph+) system linking Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, fair enough. Do the environmental impact studies, ridership studies and put some serious skin in the game, as California voters chose to do last November.

The hot, humid summers of the Lone Star state mean securing ridership will depend on excellent integration of any HSR network with local connecting transit in intermodal transit hub stations. If passengers have to step out of an air-conditioned environment and walk a while to execute a transfer, they’ll get soaking wet with sweat (or else their fellow passengers will). Instant ridership killer.

For this reason alone, Texas would need to take a much more integrated approach to planning and operating HSR + local transit than California, where humidity is much less of a problem. Some innovative approaches would be needed, e.g. a program to support folding electric bicycles. Those can easily be taken along in trains and used for personal last mile mobility (if there are bike lanes/paths). Qatar even has a project to build a bike/pedestrian path with a cold roof (i.e. one with circulating chilled water) in downtown Doha. More prosaically, so-called train taxis operate as jitneys to deliver train passengers to and from stations in Holland at a low fixed rate within a certain radius.

Subways and light rail do promote the development of transit villages within easy walking distance of stops, but it will take decades to undo the sprawl caused by an excessive reliance on cars and cheap gasoline. Therefore, they could be no more than part of the connecting transit strategy for express HSR.

Posted on Jul 15, 09 at 7:18 pm

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said:

Rafael,

I think you touch on many of the challenges facing Texas HSR. California is obviously much further along in the process, but in the last few years high-speed rail has picked up some significant political support here, from local and county officials all the way to our US senators. A number of officials hope to have HSR in place by 2020.

Hopefully our HSR will be well-integrated into our rapidly expanding mass transit systems, as you said. Thank you for your comments.

Posted on Jul 17, 09 at 9:25 am

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