Table of Contents
Why are rails so expensive?
Yes, US appears to spend more to build rail transit lines than comparable overseas peers. This difference is mostly about the cost of tunneling, not surface lines. The US pays far more to tunnel 1 km than Europeans do, even in cities like Rome where archaeology is a major issue.
How much will high-speed rail cost California?
California bills its system as the first U.S. high-speed rail project and aims to complete it in the 2030s. The cost was estimated at $80 billion in 2020 but could ultimately be as high as $99.8 billion.
Why is California High Speed Rail so slow?
In this Feb. California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Brian Kelly said that progress has been delayed several months because routine governmental tasks like legislative oversight hearings were pushed back due to COVID-19. …
How much does it cost to build a subway system?
Transit researcher Alon Levy estimates the rest of the developed world typically builds underground subways for about $350 million per mile. Even the cheapest U.S. project in recent years, Seattle’s U-Link, cost nearly double the average in other countries, at $600 million per mile.
Are California’s high-speed rail overpasses the highest in the world?
At the same time, California may be building the highest high-speed rail overpasses in the world, which reflects the project’s unusual structure—specifically, its designers’ relative indifference to construction costs compared to future maintenance costs.
Is California’s high-speed rail project in trouble?
California’s flagship high-speed rail project is in trouble. The state only has enough money to complete the route’s middle segment, running through the agricultural heartland of the Central Valley, but not to connect to Los Angeles and San Francisco, the major population centers on either end.
Where will high speed rail get its power?
On Monday, I spoke with Frank Vacca, the chief of rail operations for the California High Speed Rail Authority. The trains would draw their electricity from a contact wire 17.5 feet above the track, he said. The catenary—the collection of related electrical equipment—occupied the next five feet.
How much clearance do you need to run high-speed rail?
A 2013 study by the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas suggested high-speed rail in that state could be designed with “at least 19 feet of clearance.” France’s SNCF—whose offer of assistance was turned down by California a decade ago—manages with just over 21 feet of clearance to run its world-class TGV trains.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTt_mk86bAw