In 1964 in October, Japan introduced to the world its then newest of new railway achievements: Its high-speed Shinkansen (new trunk line) train, this more or less coinciding with the opening of the Summer Olympic Games held in Tokyo on October 10th.
Shinkansen was a development whose time had come.
Some 17 years later the second such high-speed-rail train would surface: the French TGV, short for Train A Grande Vitesse or “train of great speed.”
Others elsewhere would subsequently follow. China to date, incidentally, has the most track mileage of any country anywhere dedicated to high speed: 25,000 miles in all.
And, now 42 years after France had jumped on board, America has, at long last, caught the bullet-train bug.
So, how did the domestic high-speed-rail train-race bit even come about?
To be honest, I’m not sure one did—officially. But, based on what my observations are through my reading, this is exactly how I perceive things.
Chalk up this “perception” to being just my imagination, if you must. I, on the other hand, think it’s anything but.
Conflicting reports
I’ve followed American high-speed-rail-development progress; for sure since the mid-1990s. I even attended a California High-Speed Rail Commission meeting held in an auditorium of sorts in the Sid Craig School of Business at California State University, Fresno. Being that I mentioned the word Commission and not the word Authority, that should tell one how long ago that was. The mid-‘90s claim seems right.
At that time—and for a long time—I held onto the belief that California’s would be the first. Actual construction got underway on June 16, 2015 in Madera County on a curved viaduct that was to cross over (from north to south), Raymond Road, the Fresno River, State Route 145 and an irrigation canal. There are 30 some sites in all where work on the California HSR project is either underway or has already been completed.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but by virtue of the fact that the site in the United States where high-speed-rail building actually first commenced, would that then not qualify the California high-speed-rail project as being this nation’s first? In my way of thinking it does.
Then along comes news that a quasi-high-speed-rail line is being proposed for Las Vegas, Nevada to Victorville, California and run in the median and alongside Interstate 15—a distance of 184 miles. Attached to the proposal was the name Desert Xpress. Trains, initially were going to be diesel powered and top speed was to be either 125 or 150 mph.
That morphed into a plan, in the meantime and, in addition to the name being changed to XpressWest, operating characteristics specified had changed also: to electric trains that would attain a top speed of 200 miles per hour.
XpressWest ultimately evolved into what we are hearing about today, this being the Brightline West endeavor, with a 34-mile-long western extension being tacked on for a total track length of 218 miles, this so trains can reach Rancho Cucamonga, California allowing for a cross-platform transfer with southern California’s Metrolink passenger-rail offering. Price tag: $12 billion.
Now, what I’m hearing is Brightline West, which is projected to be competed and operational by 2027—with time to spare for the Opening Ceremonies of the 2028 Olympics Summer Games and scheduled to be held in Los Angeles—will be America’s first. The California and Brightline West systems: They can’t both be first. So which is the actual first? All of this serving as the impetus for how I arrived at this notion that there has to be a HSR train race going on stateside.
The estimated cost of the 520-mile-long California project, to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles and Anaheim, has now risen to a eye-popping $128 billion. Work on 171 miles of right-of-way is continuing between Bakersfield and Merced in the San Joaquin Valley, what’s called the interim initial operating segment, a section of track estimated to receive paying passengers in 2030. This Valley-based section build cost alone is estimated to be $25 billion. Trains are to operate at a 220 mph maximum speed.
Crossing the finish line
Declaring a winner when it comes to establishing which of these two projects is America’s first bonafide HSR service, in my opinion, is a moot point. The main, more important point is that not one but both projects should cross the construction finish line; do what they’re intended to do and, that is, give passengers a competitive third travel option in the western U.S.
What these two projects should not be competing with one another on in any way, shape or form is a “we’re the first” title. What they should, however, be concentrating on is crossing the finish line construction-wise.
The notion that HSR service offered to the traveling public in the USA for the very first time in its now 193-year-long railroad history, is where it’s at for me!