Will high-speed trains reduce travel times?
High-speed trains will provide door-to-door travel times comparable to airplanes and less than one-half as long as car travel. Below is a sample of travel times throughout the state. For information regarding all routes available on the system, please see the "Routes" section of this website.
{list}Burbank to San Francisco: Under 2 hours 35 minutes
San Jose to Los Angeles: 2 hours 21 minutes
Sacramento to Los Angeles: 2 hours 17 minutes
San Francisco to San Jose: 30 minutes
Riverside to Los Angeles: 33 minutes
Bakersfield to Los Angeles: less than 1 hour
Ontario to San Diego: less than 1 hour
Fresno to San Francisco Airport: just over an hour{/list}
Will High-Speed trains reduce the number of cars on our roads and highways?
The high-speed train system would lower the number of intercity automobile passengers on highways by up to 70 million annually. What’s more, it will cost less than half the cost of expanding freeways and airports to meet future intercity travel demand and would eliminate the need to construct 3000 lane miles of highways, 91 airport gates and five additional airport runways.
Do high-speed trains benefit other existing rail services?
California’s proposed high-speed train system will be would be highly compatible with local and regional plans supporting rail systems and transit-oriented development, and would improve intermodal connectivity with local and commuter transit systems.
Proposition 1A ensures that complementary rail capital improvements will be funded by a $950 million local portion of bond funds. These funds must be allocated to intercity, commuter and urban rail systems and shall provide direct connectivity and benefits to the high-speed train system and its facilities or be part of the construction of the system.
How were train trip times determined?
Like the new high-speed train lines being planned and built in Europe and Asia, the California High-Speed Rail Project assumes the use of the latest generation of high-speed train technology, which is capable of sustained operational speeds of over 220 mph (please also see the frequently asked question under “Technology” for “Will the Authority use proven high-speed train technology?”). Because maximum speeds can be achieved on most of the California high-speed line, high average speeds can be achieved for express services. For example, the estimated minimum express trip time between downtown San Francisco and downtown Los Angeles is 2 hours and 38 minutes. Over the nearly 450-mile trip this express service would average about 170 mph, which would make it the second fastest average speed run in the world, just behind the 174 mph TGV-Est Paris to Champagne express high-speed trains.
A network computer model (Berkeley Simulation Software Rail Traffic Controller) was developed for the proposed high-speed rail system serving the major metropolitan markets in California (San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area) to simulate train operations to contribute to defining the applicable engineering criteria, estimate travel times and speeds, and to develop the most effective rail operations plan(s) and planning level timetables. The model is a tool that accurately represents the physical characteristics of the proposed high-speed rail alignment options as well as the performance of the high-speed train equipment that would operate on the system. Based on the alignment and train information the model provides comparisons of the high-speed train system performance and capacity across a variety of alignment options, station configurations, and specified levels of service. In addition, this model also provides a common platform which to effectively interface with Metrolink, and CalTrain, on rail operations and infrastructure issues on shared use corridors (Los Angeles to Anaheim, and San Francisco to San Jose).
The Model is used to:
{list}Evaluate train performance and alignment characteristics (speeds and travel times)
Develop operating plans and refine service plans (time table)
Identify infrastructure needs (tracks, stations, storage and maintenance facilities){/list}
The model can accurately simulate high-speed train operations based on trainset performance characteristics for a specified alignment option including different geometric parameters and infrastructure configurations.