This is wonderful. Yes, it is taking longer than anticipated or desired, and we all wish the costs could be fully contained. However, in 25 or 50 or 100 years none of that will matter (or even be remembered). What will matter is that people of character and fortitude pushed this project through and improved transportation for the people of California. It already appears to have inspired other similar projects in other states; let's hope that keeps going.
Flyovers of two of the construction packages that they did last year: ua-cam.com/video/4wIFNkysNCQ/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/4tyWMs9nZKE/v-deo.html Would love to see this become an annual thing, and make these videos public. It's hard to understand the scale of the project just looking at individual structures
6:38 isn’t a highway widening project funded by the high speed rail project a bit counterintuitive??? Edit: they could’ve specified if this widening project would’ve benefited the hsr project, but idk where those benefits are… if they’re strapped for cash, why would they fund a caltrans highway project? I haven’t looked much into it, could be a simple answer.
Yeah, when I heard them say that I literally said “WHAT?!” I’m willing to bet HSR had their arm twisted to on this matter. It makes no sense for HSR to be funding highway widening.
@@ehoops31 CHSR has not choice but to spend the money widening it, the federal and state dont just hand CHSR money and let them do whatever, often times funding is for a specific project and the money can ONLY be used on that one project. In this case, the feds gave them money to widen that highway so they can either do nothing with the money and risk the fed to not support them anymore, or just use it.
I'm looking into this now... It sounds like the State Route 46 widening project is a much larger project, most of which is coming from other sources. CAHSR is only supporting a specific part: _lowering_ the highway, so that trucks can fit under a railway overpass. This wasn't a legal requirement (there are other places trucks can cross) but the city of Wasco insisted on it under threat of obstructing other parts of the project. CAHSR obviously don't wanna pay for highway projects which is why you can hear immediately afterwards the narrator says they went and got a separate federal grant for it. So it's mostly playing politics and money merry-go-rounds, rather than any _actual_ rail funding being diverted.
It's great to see just how much is being done! People complain that HSR is expensive, but watching this makes it very clear why it costs so much. There is a ton of infrastructure going in! Bridges, viaducts, utilities, outreach! There is a ton to get done and being the first HSR project in California it is going to take a lot of time and effort.
I don’t think people understand why costs are so high. This project isn’t just building high speed rail, it’s upgrading utilities, reforming roadways and also funding other transit projects. It’s a way bigger project than it gets credit for and it is still a v,amiable investment that should continue to receive funding.
@@onetwothreeabc Do you realize that California subsidizes other states? It pays more in federal taxes than it receives back from the federal government. Same with states like NY, MA, WA, IL… so I think our most populous state deserves a turn to feed at the federal trough more than a debtor state like Alabama or Kentucky.
Also like it’s costing LA $9 billion to extend the Wilshire subway, $2 billion to finish SF’s central subway, and $17 billion for NY’s 2nd Ave subway, infrastructure in the US is just expensive This is a 400+ mile HSR project aiming for the gold standard that has to tunnel thru 3 mountain ranges, how cheap did these knuckleheads complaining about price seriously expect it to be???
@@conorreynolds9739 I support you Californian seek independence if you don’t like to pay tax to the Fed. Paying more tax than other states is not a reason why people in New York or Chicago should pay to widen a road in California.
@@onetwothreeabc You realize everyone in American benefits from infrastructure improvements, even if those improvements are fully contained within a single state, right? You also realize your tax dollars constantly go to various projects in other states. That's because it's all still the same country. If you don't want your tax dollars funding massive infrastructure improvements in America, move to another country.
@@DiogenesOfCa doesn't have to be. The problem we have today is companies owning homes or a single person owning 15000 homes and only renting a portion out. Google the 15000 homes guy.
This is an amazing update. I have loved seeing the increase in production quality of these videos since this project started. I absolutely appreciate the explanations so that non-transit inclined people can understand what's being discussed. I really hope that the HSR stations are built and planned around mixed-use high-density neighborhoods.
@@davidjackson7281Brightline doesn’t have the time or money to build was CAHSR is doing. And the one big route from Las Vegas to LA is getting tons of fed gov support, also unlike CAHSR. Tho I would agree real estate investment would be smart
@@bobsteve4812 To date CAHSR has received about $7 Billion in fed grants vs. $3 Billion for BLW. Frankly BLW is putting CAHSR to shame. Have you had a chance to view any CAHSRA board meetings?
@@davidjackson7281 BLW is a shorter route without the tunneling and grade separation needed to cover 2/3 of Cali’s height. It would always be a more expensive project due to those factors alone, yet gets far fewer federal grants relative to its size, many of which only came recently. It’s not like under a Republican presidency and congress did good for it. Btw I’m fully supportive of BLW, but construction has only begun so we’ll if they get anywhere near that 2028 timeline.
@@bobsteve4812 Btw l am supported of both projects. BLW may somewhat miss the 2028 timeline but CAHSR has never ever made a timeline goal since 2008 when btw the governor was Republican. BLW will begin revenue operations (long) before CAHSR. The valley segment is 171 miles vs. BLW's longer 218 mile route. l have no doubt BLW will be much more successful. Would anyone rather visit Bakersfield vs. Vegas? As CAHSR still dilly-dallies BLW has already ordered 10 Siemens trainsets.
CAHSR should have already chosen Siemens long before private enterprise BLW has now just done rather than dilly-dally like they always do. There's no sense of urgency with this public project socialism DEl endeavor. Shameful.
@@eapleitez To each their own in a free speech society unlike a left wing totalitarian socialist regime, my friend. Unlike naive liberals who do and say what they are brainwashed to believe l am a libertarian critical thinker. How's by you?
@davidjackson7281 I'm asking you how is the a DEI project? You seem to applying labels to something that has nothing to do with that. Also, mass transit is a bad thing?
@@eapleitez Of course public transit is very important especially when it isn't built as a social welfare program. l doubt you have watch the board meetings to understand what this project is ... amateurs slowly getting experience on the job.
Very happy to see regular updates on this massive project! Really puts into perspective the scale and amount of detail needed to complete! Keep it up CHSR!
If Siemens got the contract, they'd have the same issues Alstom had in managing the unrealistic expectations of the NEC. With CAHSR the right of way would be owned by one entity, and wouldn't have any of the issues the NEC had.
I actually do think autonomous cars have a future, but not one where everyone owns one. They’ll be more like a rideshare service, one you call up on an app, it takes you to where you want to go, drops you off, and heads out to pick up the next customer. They’d be really good for suburbs and places transit may not reach or be very effective.
@@ChrisJones-gx7fc No they will be circling around making more traffic and more wear and tear on our roads. And if you live in a "bad" neighborhood you will not get service.
@@DiogenesOfCa well if, and it is if, autonomous cars are here to stay, I see them being like a rideshare service, not necessarily personal ownership, used to fill transit gaps in cities and suburban areas, much like taxis and rideshare are now.
I think the very likely winner for the trainset will be a variant of the Siemens _Velaro_ trainset. For two reasons: 1) they haven't been plagued by reliability issues of recent Alstom train sets (ask Amtrak about the _Avelia LIberty_ train sets or SNCF about the TGV M train sets) and 2) the train set could be built at Siemens Mobility's assembly line in southern Sacramento County.
Brightline West recently chose Siemens, and according to a December 2023 Railway Age article about Nevada DOT seeking a "Buy America" exemption from the FRA for Brightline West for HSR components not currently made in the US, which included the proposals from Siemens and Alstom, Siemens would build a new HSR manufacturing plant in Nevada. Given they've now been chosen and as such will most certainly move forward with that plan (I suspect them saying Nevada was a way to coax NVDOT/BLW into choosing them as it means Nevada jobs, as Alstom would have built the trains at its existing NY plant), should CAHSR choose Siemens also it's likely its trains would also be made at that same plant, or at least that would make sense.
@@ChrisJones-gx7fc It's also a possibility that siemens is already the preferred choice, and this contest is just to appear impartial. I see it all the time in government hiring. they already know who they want to hire, but open the job to the public so they can say they aren't biased, and perhaps find a better candidate in the process.
Unfortunately this is going from nowhere to nowhere, ridership will be a a big problem. Will never pay for itself and connect it to big city will be prohibitive unless we go underground
@@potblack6043 interesting you say that, because CHSRA’s 2024 Service Planning Methodology supporting document, under Fleet Specifications, it says “trainsets with performance characteristics equivalent to the Alstom AGV trainset model were used for the pure run-time calculations.”
@@kamenzakov-mh8pl Merced and Bakersfield are not nowhere (Fresno and Bakersfield are the fifth and ninth most populous cities in the state, and Merced is both a gateway to Yosemite NP and home to the newest UC school), and there’ll be transit at both ends that connects HSR to the Bay Area/Sacramento and SoCal. CAHSR will share the Caltrain corridor between SF and San Jose, so it only needs to get across Pacheco Pass to Gilroy, then construct 1-2 new electrified tracks (three total in the corridor) from Gilroy to San Jose that it’ll also share with Caltrain. As for reaching LA, there will be a considerable amount of tunneling through the San Gabriel Mountains and San Fernando Valley, with an underground station at Burbank Airport, before HSR tracks return to ground level to enter the existing Metrolink corridor and follow alongside it into LAUS, and from there it’ll share tracks with Metrolink and Amtrak to Anaheim.
Really hope to see lots of retail spaces and kiosks in the future stations. We should make the stations similar to airport gates or malls, with plenty of restaurant/dining options, shopping and tech stores, coffee shops, and lounge areas. This will generate more revenue for operations and future capital projects too.
In the construction accounting world we are very familiar with the concept of “percentage complete” - why don’t you ever disclose what percent of the HSR is complete? Failure to do so is intentional obfuscation.
@@davidepperson2376 "construction complete percentage" is hard to calculate on a project this size... do you calculate using time it takes to construct every element? or by mileage of track? for example, if you have a 100 mile stretch of rail right-of-way, and along the route there are 12 new grade separated bridges needed. each one of those bridges might take 6 months to complete. let's say CHSR has the capability of doing all the bridges at the same time, but combined that is 72 months worth of work, where lying the the 100 miles of track takes only 1full year, you could say that CHSR is more than 80% complete in that in 100 mile stretch, even if there is not a single mile of track laid on the ground. my point is, all these massive infrastructure projects that are part of CHSR are really the heavy lifting portion. laying 500 miles of pristine track on a perfectly prepared track bed is the easy part.
This is a great update with good drone video and clear concise information about the various CAHSR construction projects. This project gets more impressive, the more I know about it. Well done.
Wow this is truely massive. What an undertaking. I wish you the best if luck and hope someday to visit the USA to ride it. Ill be watching updates eagerly.
An end to end flyover would be really helpful. I had no idea how much was done until I watched a video by the 4 foot, but his video is a few years out of date.
💯 I've gotten really frustrated by the communications of CAHSR. Their coverage plays into the hands of folks and news outlets who spread misinformation that this troubled project is even worse off than it actually is. CAHSR over-indexes on paper achievements, which while I'm sure took a lot of white-collar work, are really hard for anyone outside of the bureaucracy to understand. It trumpets job creation and consumption metrics, which play into "boondoggle" suspicions. Then, when finally on the ground, its coverage both omits the huge bulk of progress (the earthwork comprising the right of way at large) and zooms in on incomplete skeletons of structures in the middle of nowhere. And it does so with so much jargon (falsework, formwork, substructure, superstructure, MSE barrier walls, precast girders, guys I'm not a civil engineer?!) that the impression again is that there's something to hide. Various hobbyists and students (The Four Foot, Drone Zone Flyovers, AmpereBEEP, all seemingly dormant by now) have run circles around CAHSR with their citizen walkthroughs via drone or satellite. And paradoxically, these uncompensated workers are the ones who have shown us that the project is actually coming along decently these days.
And what do you want, Alstom? They are having problems with their TGV M sets in France - that's their home base and do I have to mention the Avelia Liberty sets on the Northeast Corridor?
@@kristoffermangila There are no problems with the TGV M. They will be slightly delayed (6 months) but thats pretty much to be expected with any projects nowadays.
7 місяців тому
@@buckdanny9062 Of course they have massive problems right now. The train commutes the entire time between the factory and the test track in Velim. At the EBA they already say internally that the way the TGV M is, it wouldn't even get approval in Germany.
@@ll4680 yeah a lot of boomer and greanpeace environmentalists oppose construction as a principle even if it is good for the environment so CEQA reflects that
3.5 years is still quite a bit of time. After the earthworks and bridges/viaducts are finished, installing the rails and catentary shouldn't take too long, so testing of the track could begin relatively early. Stations and maintenance buildings will probably take a bit longer and won't be finished by 2028. At least, that's what I imagine.
@@Trojans5050 CAHSR trains are to be tested at up to 242 mph. That's likely faster than Pueblo can handle, making the California HSR tracks the only place trains will be able to safely go that fast.
@@ChrisJones-gx7fcah great point. I just googled it and the max speed at Pueblo is listed at 156mph. They likely can do some testing there but you are right, full speed will need to be done on the mainline.
@@Trojans5050Dynamic testing has to be done on the actual track for long distances. They should be able to do it on the first 119 mile section. They shouldn't have to wait until all the 171 miles are finished to do the dynamic testing.
My guess it will never be finished - at least not when the costs for tunneling into Bay Area and LA are disclosed. Even in nearly-flat central valley, with almost no population or right of way issues, it's already vastly over budget. Tunneling thru high seismic areas will see costs balloon to massive levels - of course, they'll try and say 'who coulda known?' - except every contractor and insider knows it right now - they simply choose not to tell taxpyers the truth because this is a lifetime project for those who get the needle into the vein of taxpayers...
You'll wait a very long time. We already have. We'll be 6 feet under before they get 6 feet under LA and SF infrastructure to make stations. Enjoy the shitshow.
Yes, including Los Angeles for the time being. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like there will be a train connection from LA to the CAHSR initial terminus in Bakersfield. Which sucks. However, there will be a train connection from SF to Merced as I understand it.
@@mrxman581 East Bay to Merced, yeah, with bus/BART to reach SF, same as it is now. As for Bakersfield-LA, that’s all the more reason to push funding and building CAHSR’s Bakersfield-Palmdale segment, in addition to Merced-San Jose, so both open at the same time. Hopefully that could happen by the mid to late 2030s, though it depends on when construction starts which probably won’t be earlier than 2031, after Merced-Bakersfield begins service.
Several, both at the ends, and in the central valley proper (look up the "Cross Valley Corridor," which is a plan for phased implementation of bus and then rail service running perpendicular across the valley meeting HSR at Hanford, linking places like Lemoore, Hanford, Visalia, and Porterville )
I am glad that we are finally starting to see real progress and tracktion :) on high speed rail projects across the nation. At some point in the future you could have the option to HSR across the country instead of flying!
0:03 Cool that cali is getting hsr. Please don't make your stations look like that. It'll have the worst glare possible and passengers and the engineer alike will be very uncomfortable arriving and departing these stations while the sun flashes in and out of their vision like a strobe light. Just make a normal train shed. It'll be a lot less intense on passengers and the engineer.
Whenever the California State Government and the Federal Government decide to actually pay up with the funds necessary to actually construct it is your answer. Until that happens, we are stuck with these slow timelines. So far, the California State Government has footed around 80% of the bill which is very unbalanced in terms of major infrastructure projects across US history, like the Interstate Highway System which was closer to 80-90% federal and 10% state/local. They need between $21B and $36B to get to SF from Chowchilla, and between $32B and $53B to get to LA from Bakersfield. Time is money, so the longer we wait, the more expensive it will become. Either we pay the current price now, or pay a much higher price later on.
Mexico just finished 2700 miles on 5 years, And it’s have the base to reconstruct 18.000 miles in 12 years. Hopefully someday California become efficient building infrastructure.
Seeing all those workers building this amazing and massive project... I feel like they should have their names embedded somewhere (such as at a station) to commemorate all the work that is going into this.
All of this in only fourteen years at a cost of $11,000,000,000, we now have 1,600 feet of track on the ground, just for perspective that is the length of 1/4 mile drag strip with the run off area. Absolutely an unmitigated success story worthy of celebration, kinda like Olympic Break Dancing.
Nice to see the USA building high speed rail. Do you have a video showing the number of people that California High-Speed Rail can move away from domestic flights and/or long freeway drives? What sort of integration is there going to be with your railway stations and local public transport? Are any of your stations rail hubs? Are you able to put in passive provision to support the reopening of a disused rail line or conversion of a freight line into a metro line that could have an interchange with any of your stations?
In the Central Valley, there is a project dubbed "Cross Valley Corridor" to establish regional rail in the area near the Kings-Tulare HSR station. The north end of the Central Valley segment in Merced is planned to be well integrated with the existing and expanded regional rail service for onward travel to Sacramento and the Bay Area. When the project gets to San Francisco and Los Angeles, those areas will be well integrated with existing networks, sharing corridors and stations with existing regional rail services.
Almost none of the above. The San Francisco Bay Area has and Los Angeles area each have over 10 million people. This high speed rail project will connect Merced to Bakersfield. Merced is a small town and Bakersfield is a medium sized town in the mostly rural and agricultural central Valley which is flat. To connect Los Angeles and San Francisco they have to cross mountains. Here it's already been 16 years and they struggling to cross rural roads and highways. When it comes to mountains and underground urban construction - they will be in for a real challenge. Merced and Bakersfield are both extremely car-centric cities with limited public transportation. To be effective, they need options for people to actually be able to use it frequently for things like commuting. Not a once in 3 year trip to Hollywood. The Northern Central Valley is full of working class people who commute to the SF Bay Area because they can't afford to live there. Bakersfield is full of people who commute to Los Angeles because they can't afford to live there. Then we shame the lower class for having cars because they can't afford million dollar houses. Meanwhile the millionaires in those expensive houses don't want public transport because they don't feel safe on it.
@@MarxistNurseNot if the funding dries up. If I am not mistaken this project still needs $90-$100billion to be completed! Hell there some sort of investigation going on in Congress right now with one of the senators point blank asking how they planned to find the needed funds.
@@onetwothreeabcI'm OK with CA's tax dollars coming back home instead of paying for Brett Favre's daughter's volleyball stadium in Mississippi. With money set aside to help prevent poverty in one of the statistically most impoverished states in the country. :(
@@mrj8648 I totally support you to audit more on how Fed money is spent in general. But tax dollars ain’t “coming back” just to one state. If you think CA is paying too much tax to Fed, you can push for a national tax reduction.
I retire in 15 years, I would like to ride the train by then ... from SF to LA, not drive to the central valley to go to some other place in the central valley. Also I hope those trains, whomever gets the contract isn't 10+ year old trains before they're even run.
@@Mike__B Realistically, no. The Federal Government even now is reluctant to give the Authority more funding which puts even the Merced-Bakersfield segment at risk of slipping by 3 years. Thats at least a guaranteed timeline, but without the key federal support, I do not see this project getting more than enough to get to SF. Maybe at that point they can get private investment to build to LA like Brightline has after getting half of their budget funded? That seems to be what they are betting on at this point.
@@AmpereBEEP there’s no way SoCal will be cool letting HSR end in Bakersfield, and will push to at least get it to Palmdale and the Metrolink connection to LA. That CV-SoCal passenger rail gap is long overdue to be closed. In a perfect world both the San Jose and Palmdale extensions will be funded and built concurrently, so when HSR trains first reach SF they’ll also reach Metrolink to LA, allowing the all-rail SF-LA journey with one easy transfer in Palmdale. There’s also the plausibility of electrifying and sharing the AV Line as an interim route to get HSR trains into LA and start direct SF-LA service sooner, before 2040, while CHSRA funds and builds its Palmdale-LA segment.
@@AmpereBEEP Without the Federal support, and also with the rather tepid distance state legislators and the governor have had about any reliable state funding (Cap and Trade being neither particularly large, variable, and ending in 2030) I definitely agree.
I admire California's efforts on this project. I live in Texas where all we do is talk about high speed rail and do absolutely nothing to building it. But our governor has spent millions putting concertina wire on the border, so we do have that.😵
It hasn't started. Is just another scam by the California's Democrats. Where did all the money go that we voted on to repair the Oroville Dam? Nobody knows. That money disappeared and then several years later the damn failed.
Why would anyone want to rush a project like this is crazy. You want them to take their time to make sure it will be safe to ride. Don't cut corners just because the public is impatient. Some of the negative comments are amazing. smh
@@westside213 so funny looking at out-of-staters thinking the state that gives more money to the feds than it receives is going bankrupt because of one underfunded, relativity small infrastructure project
Yea don't stop wasting money, I mean it's only been 15 years and we still have essentially zero progress...and the cost has quadrupled....but you go California! You can do it by year 2100 we are rooting for you!
wtf is a nabob? Anyone who lives in cali obviously has wanted this to happen so long that they forgot it was actually happening. The bleeding of money on projects is so apparent here we might as well start mining for gold again and drain Tahoe.
Is there any place where the differences and engineering decisions for each of these locations is described? Just seems like each of these have unique characteristics and I don't understand why they are not more consistent.
Each CP (1, 2-3, and 4) was built by a different contractor, who each designed and then built that segment. Going forward, CHSRA is going to have segments designed first before having contractors bid for them, which should reduce the cost and make construction happen faster.
It seems like they're doing the best they can to keep vehicular traffic and the railway apart. GREAT! When you have a level crossing, you _will_ have accidents.
Of course, India’s. Despite being 503 km (312 miles) all viaduct route and 21 km tunnel (5km undersea), 153 km viaduct with 300 km foundation/pier work already complete. Construction started in 2019 and will complete by 2027-28. Cost is also USD 20B.
Trick question! California will never finish - costs have already spiralled out of control and this section is far-and-away the easiest/cheapest portion. Tunnelling into Bay Area/LA will involve multiples-higher costs.
@@unclekanaamcuttingwalahai332 2028? Oh dear. They won't even have begun tunneling - and by that time, their absurd lowball cost estimates will be a fantasy.
@@ArthurDentZaphodBeeb there is olympic in 2028.. so I think its possible they will work their @ss off before olympic to finish the project..and I dont think US should think about cost ..
finally another one also what about the section from shafter to bakersfield, on google maps you can see that the construction stops somewhere just north of shafter but the segment all the way to bakersfield is supposed to be open by 2030. is it just gonna start soon and be construction package 5?
They got the federal grant funding for finishing the final bits to Bakersfield and Merced awarded this past December, which was the green light to start final design and land aquisition. It's fine that the end bits will be following behind the rest of it by a couple of years, since they need about that amount of time for train testing, which that they can complete on the part that's already under construction now.
I think high-speed rail is a great solution to California transportation needs. In fact, I think regular-speed rail could be a pretty good solution. Wish we had that between SoCal and NorCal. Much of the current "train" trip from L.A. to Sacramento is spent on a darn BUS! LosAngeles to Bakersfield via bus with Pure Anarchy Loading at Union Station. No reservations, no crowd control, late arrivals board first, handicapped passengers just have to wait. Whoever fights hardest gets on first and takes whatever seat they want. I hope the same people who run Anthrax, excuse me Amtrak, won't be in charge of any part of the HSR system.
@@interstellarphred So I assume you grow all your own food because that all gets shipped to your grocery store on a highway.......And obviously you NEVER drive on an interstate. Correct???
I hope the stations actually turn out like the renders, but if its anything like transit in America you just know it'll be a station in the middle of a gigantic parking lot.
Did you not see all of the infrastructure improvements made throughout the central valley of California that historically have been neglected compared to the rest of the state?
@@MarxistNurse And where does that get us? So, we had to get raked over coals for our tax money to purchase a unicorn of HSR, only to benefit the CV of CA because they were historically neglected? Sounds a lot like money laundering. For simps such as yourself, why don't you just give more of your own money each month to the CV of CA so that they can be less neglected? Bypass the money laundering and corruption that runs amok in the state gov't?
How many employees work for the California High Speed Authority and what is the fiscal impact of these staff costs on California's operating budget including underfunded retirement shortfalls? Why did a contractor recently leave the project to perform work in another state? What is the annual cost of interest payments to the bonds and what budget do these interest payments come from? What was the original promised cost estimate and now what it the total cost estimate for the finished project as originally proposed? Is there a legal limit to the amount of bonds that can be sold for this project?
The best part about this project's progress is the side effect. The waterfall of tears cried by the NIMBYs will do nothing to stop the project, but is so great it will replenish the state's water supply! Keep building keep going CAHSR!
If it ever gets built, how much are tickets going to cost? Using Eurostar as a comparison, I would guess that a ride from LA to SF will cost about $200-300 one way.
One thing you will never see on these cheerleading sites is how much money this would lose every year in the unlikely event of it ever being completed. The original proposition assured voters that losses would not be subsidized. If they are honest about that, tickets will run into the many hundreds if not thousands. Obviously they won't be honest, so they will be subsidizing more billions operating it every year. I honestly think that the democrats know what a money pit this is, and they are just trying to keep this on life support until Trump is elected so they can then close it down and somehow blame him. Their target audience will swallow it whole.
I don't know why the soundtrack is 100% synthwave, but I can dig it.
I came to comment the same thing. I was like.. I feel like I'm watching an educational video from the early 90s lol
they know their target audience
Kavinsky would approve.
No I don't like this guy's voice so I mute him and their music and play Pink Floyd
We are Entering the Future of American Rail Travel
Some Synthwave can't hurt
This is wonderful. Yes, it is taking longer than anticipated or desired, and we all wish the costs could be fully contained. However, in 25 or 50 or 100 years none of that will matter (or even be remembered). What will matter is that people of character and fortitude pushed this project through and improved transportation for the people of California. It already appears to have inspired other similar projects in other states; let's hope that keeps going.
@@scotttild Yeah, it is. That's why the HSR needs to be built.
Nope. In 50 years we will look at this like we look at Caltrain BART and Muni, which is to say obsolete unmaintained expensive and useless.
You were paid to say this
@@celebrityrog Thanks for revealing how little you know about Caltrain, BART, Muni, and CAHSR.
@@travelingwaves By who?
Great update! Please consider doing an updated complete 119-mile flyover!
This would be great, yeah!
They cannot without admitting how pathetic progress is.
@@coldlogic800 You can follow the route on google maps satellite view. They've been doing very well.
@@coldlogic800 Lol.. progress has been pretty good! Pay attention!
Flyovers of two of the construction packages that they did last year:
ua-cam.com/video/4wIFNkysNCQ/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/4tyWMs9nZKE/v-deo.html
Would love to see this become an annual thing, and make these videos public. It's hard to understand the scale of the project just looking at individual structures
6:38 isn’t a highway widening project funded by the high speed rail project a bit counterintuitive???
Edit: they could’ve specified if this widening project would’ve benefited the hsr project, but idk where those benefits are… if they’re strapped for cash, why would they fund a caltrans highway project? I haven’t looked much into it, could be a simple answer.
Uhh... I do not want my tax dollars going to highway widening. CaHSR is underfunded but still has money for this? Sounds very irresponsible.
Yeah, when I heard them say that I literally said “WHAT?!” I’m willing to bet HSR had their arm twisted to on this matter. It makes no sense for HSR to be funding highway widening.
@@ehoops31 CHSR has not choice but to spend the money widening it, the federal and state dont just hand CHSR money and let them do whatever, often times funding is for a specific project and the money can ONLY be used on that one project. In this case, the feds gave them money to widen that highway so they can either do nothing with the money and risk the fed to not support them anymore, or just use it.
I'm looking into this now...
It sounds like the State Route 46 widening project is a much larger project, most of which is coming from other sources. CAHSR is only supporting a specific part: _lowering_ the highway, so that trucks can fit under a railway overpass. This wasn't a legal requirement (there are other places trucks can cross) but the city of Wasco insisted on it under threat of obstructing other parts of the project. CAHSR obviously don't wanna pay for highway projects which is why you can hear immediately afterwards the narrator says they went and got a separate federal grant for it.
So it's mostly playing politics and money merry-go-rounds, rather than any _actual_ rail funding being diverted.
@@Nalehwthanks for looking into it!
Thank you for this update. I saw a bunch of this a couple of months ago touring the central valley area for my company.
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It's great to see just how much is being done! People complain that HSR is expensive, but watching this makes it very clear why it costs so much. There is a ton of infrastructure going in! Bridges, viaducts, utilities, outreach! There is a ton to get done and being the first HSR project in California it is going to take a lot of time and effort.
I don’t think people understand why costs are so high. This project isn’t just building high speed rail, it’s upgrading utilities, reforming roadways and also funding other transit projects. It’s a way bigger project than it gets credit for and it is still a v,amiable investment that should continue to receive funding.
So it should be fully funded by California tax dollars.
@@onetwothreeabc Do you realize that California subsidizes other states? It pays more in federal taxes than it receives back from the federal government. Same with states like NY, MA, WA, IL… so I think our most populous state deserves a turn to feed at the federal trough more than a debtor state like Alabama or Kentucky.
Also like it’s costing LA $9 billion to extend the Wilshire subway, $2 billion to finish SF’s central subway, and $17 billion for NY’s 2nd Ave subway, infrastructure in the US is just expensive
This is a 400+ mile HSR project aiming for the gold standard that has to tunnel thru 3 mountain ranges, how cheap did these knuckleheads complaining about price seriously expect it to be???
@@conorreynolds9739 I support you Californian seek independence if you don’t like to pay tax to the Fed.
Paying more tax than other states is not a reason why people in New York or Chicago should pay to widen a road in California.
@@onetwothreeabc You realize everyone in American benefits from infrastructure improvements, even if those improvements are fully contained within a single state, right? You also realize your tax dollars constantly go to various projects in other states. That's because it's all still the same country. If you don't want your tax dollars funding massive infrastructure improvements in America, move to another country.
Lots of housing near stations, please..
DENSE HOUSING!
@@DiogenesOfCa doesn't have to be. The problem we have today is companies owning homes or a single person owning 15000 homes and only renting a portion out. Google the 15000 homes guy.
@@Cookies4Wookiees Density equals more housing which means lower prices and more choices.
Oooh. Slums and high-speed rail! Kewl.
@@jazzlover10000 not sure where you got that from but. Enjoy your life
Thank you construction workers we appreciate you! Stay safe!
This is an amazing update. I have loved seeing the increase in production quality of these videos since this project started. I absolutely appreciate the explanations so that non-transit inclined people can understand what's being discussed.
I really hope that the HSR stations are built and planned around mixed-use high-density neighborhoods.
Excellent! I hope that high-density development will be allowed around the stations.
Unlike private free enterprise Brightline CAHSR has no plans to profit from real estate development. How dumb is that?
@@davidjackson7281Brightline doesn’t have the time or money to build was CAHSR is doing. And the one big route from Las Vegas to LA is getting tons of fed gov support, also unlike CAHSR. Tho I would agree real estate investment would be smart
@@bobsteve4812 To date CAHSR has received about $7 Billion in fed grants vs. $3 Billion for BLW. Frankly BLW is putting CAHSR to shame. Have you had a chance to view any CAHSRA board meetings?
@@davidjackson7281 BLW is a shorter route without the tunneling and grade separation needed to cover 2/3 of Cali’s height. It would always be a more expensive project due to those factors alone, yet gets far fewer federal grants relative to its size, many of which only came recently. It’s not like under a Republican presidency and congress did good for it. Btw I’m fully supportive of BLW, but construction has only begun so we’ll if they get anywhere near that 2028 timeline.
@@bobsteve4812 Btw l am supported of both projects. BLW may somewhat miss the 2028 timeline but CAHSR has never ever made a timeline goal since 2008 when btw the governor was Republican. BLW will begin revenue operations (long) before CAHSR. The valley segment is 171 miles vs. BLW's longer 218 mile route. l have no doubt BLW will be much more successful. Would anyone rather visit Bakersfield vs. Vegas? As CAHSR still dilly-dallies BLW has already ordered 10 Siemens trainsets.
Really hoping Siemens wins the bid over Alstom
CAHSR should have already chosen Siemens long before private enterprise BLW has now just done rather than dilly-dally like they always do. There's no sense of urgency with this public project socialism DEl endeavor. Shameful.
@davidjackson7281 DEI endeavor? Can you explain that? Too much right wing echo chambers in your internet consumption
@@eapleitez To each their own in a free speech society unlike a left wing totalitarian socialist regime, my friend.
Unlike naive liberals who do and say what they are brainwashed to believe l am a libertarian critical thinker. How's by you?
@davidjackson7281 I'm asking you how is the a DEI project? You seem to applying labels to something that has nothing to do with that. Also, mass transit is a bad thing?
@@eapleitez Of course public transit is very important especially when it isn't built as a social welfare program. l doubt you have watch the board meetings to understand what this project is ... amateurs slowly getting experience on the job.
Very happy to see regular updates on this massive project! Really puts into perspective the scale and amount of detail needed to complete!
Keep it up CHSR!
Please don't go with Alstom they fucked up the Avelia Liberty in the Northeast Corridor so bad
How?
Also the TGV M (Avelia Horizon) in France.
Yes, Go with Siemens!
Cheers from 🇩🇪 ;)
If Siemens got the contract, they'd have the same issues Alstom had in managing the unrealistic expectations of the NEC. With CAHSR the right of way would be owned by one entity, and wouldn't have any of the issues the NEC had.
With Brightline West going with Siemens, this is a no brainer for Siemens to be California’s choice.
Go CaHSR!
California legislature will scrap it.
Yes to the nowhere Central Valley.
Hijacked account making bot comments
@@davidjackson7281 LA to SF is nowehere?
@@jbudlo2 l said the valley. LA-SF not until 2064 or perhaps not at all.
Good to see progress on actual solutions and not scams like hyperloops or autonomous cars (aka Musk)
I actually do think autonomous cars have a future, but not one where everyone owns one. They’ll be more like a rideshare service, one you call up on an app, it takes you to where you want to go, drops you off, and heads out to pick up the next customer. They’d be really good for suburbs and places transit may not reach or be very effective.
@@ChrisJones-gx7fc So… a taxi.
@@calicodavis1511 I mean, basically yeah, but then what’s Uber and Lyft?
@@ChrisJones-gx7fc No they will be circling around making more traffic and more wear and tear on our roads.
And if you live in a "bad" neighborhood you will not get service.
@@DiogenesOfCa well if, and it is if, autonomous cars are here to stay, I see them being like a rideshare service, not necessarily personal ownership, used to fill transit gaps in cities and suburban areas, much like taxis and rideshare are now.
Great update. I can't wait for the trainset award. Keep up the good work.!!!
Awesome work! 🎉
We really appreciate the updates!
The United States needs a fast and reliable train network!!!! Good work ya’ll!
I think the very likely winner for the trainset will be a variant of the Siemens _Velaro_ trainset. For two reasons: 1) they haven't been plagued by reliability issues of recent Alstom train sets (ask Amtrak about the _Avelia LIberty_ train sets or SNCF about the TGV M train sets) and 2) the train set could be built at Siemens Mobility's assembly line in southern Sacramento County.
Brightline West recently chose Siemens, and according to a December 2023 Railway Age article about Nevada DOT seeking a "Buy America" exemption from the FRA for Brightline West for HSR components not currently made in the US, which included the proposals from Siemens and Alstom, Siemens would build a new HSR manufacturing plant in Nevada. Given they've now been chosen and as such will most certainly move forward with that plan (I suspect them saying Nevada was a way to coax NVDOT/BLW into choosing them as it means Nevada jobs, as Alstom would have built the trains at its existing NY plant), should CAHSR choose Siemens also it's likely its trains would also be made at that same plant, or at least that would make sense.
@@ChrisJones-gx7fc It's also a possibility that siemens is already the preferred choice, and this contest is just to appear impartial. I see it all the time in government hiring. they already know who they want to hire, but open the job to the public so they can say they aren't biased, and perhaps find a better candidate in the process.
Unfortunately this is going from nowhere to nowhere, ridership will be a a big problem. Will never pay for itself and connect it to big city will be prohibitive unless we go underground
@@potblack6043 interesting you say that, because CHSRA’s 2024 Service Planning Methodology supporting document, under Fleet Specifications, it says “trainsets with performance characteristics equivalent to the Alstom AGV trainset model were used for the pure run-time calculations.”
@@kamenzakov-mh8pl Merced and Bakersfield are not nowhere (Fresno and Bakersfield are the fifth and ninth most populous cities in the state, and Merced is both a gateway to Yosemite NP and home to the newest UC school), and there’ll be transit at both ends that connects HSR to the Bay Area/Sacramento and SoCal. CAHSR will share the Caltrain corridor between SF and San Jose, so it only needs to get across Pacheco Pass to Gilroy, then construct 1-2 new electrified tracks (three total in the corridor) from Gilroy to San Jose that it’ll also share with Caltrain.
As for reaching LA, there will be a considerable amount of tunneling through the San Gabriel Mountains and San Fernando Valley, with an underground station at Burbank Airport, before HSR tracks return to ground level to enter the existing Metrolink corridor and follow alongside it into LAUS, and from there it’ll share tracks with Metrolink and Amtrak to Anaheim.
The $40B price tag advertised on the ballot seems a little bait & switch at this point.
Great progress!
This is fantastic, More people need to hear about this. Fantastic
Tell us about the tunnels required to enter the Bay Area and the L.A. Basin.
I believe in CHSR
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@@Hooksleft-1 bad bot
Really hope to see lots of retail spaces and kiosks in the future stations. We should make the stations similar to airport gates or malls, with plenty of restaurant/dining options, shopping and tech stores, coffee shops, and lounge areas. This will generate more revenue for operations and future capital projects too.
Well edited and informative update as always, Cant wait for Cali HSR!!!!!
The cathedral in cologne Germany took 600 years, so this isn't too bad.
and that's why germany is building for eternity. and as you can see, the cathedral is still standing.
This will need a remodel in 30 years.
Yes but I use after-shave, not cologne.
Many landowners will become very rich by CaHSR.
Same type of thing with the Basílica de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona! I think they are almost done!
Nice to see this coming together! Way to make the station mockups look like the radiator in Grandma's first apartment!
Naysayers be damned. CA needs this badly.
Yes am pretty sure if we double minimum wage to $40/hour enough money can be raised through taxes too! Go California!
Who “needs this badly”? I can fly from anywhere in the LA area to Oakland for $56, and get there ina fraction of the time. Seriously - who NEEDS this?
In the construction accounting world we are very familiar with the concept of “percentage complete” - why don’t you ever disclose what percent of the HSR is complete?
Failure to do so is intentional obfuscation.
@@davidepperson2376 "construction complete percentage" is hard to calculate on a project this size... do you calculate using time it takes to construct every element? or by mileage of track? for example, if you have a 100 mile stretch of rail right-of-way, and along the route there are 12 new grade separated bridges needed. each one of those bridges might take 6 months to complete. let's say CHSR has the capability of doing all the bridges at the same time, but combined that is 72 months worth of work, where lying the the 100 miles of track takes only 1full year, you could say that CHSR is more than 80% complete in that in 100 mile stretch, even if there is not a single mile of track laid on the ground. my point is, all these massive infrastructure projects that are part of CHSR are really the heavy lifting portion. laying 500 miles of pristine track on a perfectly prepared track bed is the easy part.
no one rides metro , or the buses. , so you will have the train all to yourself
Great Job engineers, project managers and all tradesmen
This is a great update with good drone video and clear concise information about the various CAHSR construction projects. This project gets more impressive, the more I know about it. Well done.
It’s great seeing it continue to take shape and get ever closer to tracks and eventual trains. It feels more tangible with every update.
I love these updates. Thank you
Why are we funding highway widening projects with CHSR money?
Example?
6:38 @@ES-hr6vg
I think I found where the cost overruns are coming from
@@ES-hr6vgWatch at 6:38. SR-46 widening project done by Caltrans, funded by CAHSR.
because carbrain
Wow this is truely massive. What an undertaking. I wish you the best if luck and hope someday to visit the USA to ride it. Ill be watching updates eagerly.
An end to end flyover would be really helpful. I had no idea how much was done until I watched a video by the 4 foot, but his video is a few years out of date.
💯 I've gotten really frustrated by the communications of CAHSR. Their coverage plays into the hands of folks and news outlets who spread misinformation that this troubled project is even worse off than it actually is. CAHSR over-indexes on paper achievements, which while I'm sure took a lot of white-collar work, are really hard for anyone outside of the bureaucracy to understand. It trumpets job creation and consumption metrics, which play into "boondoggle" suspicions. Then, when finally on the ground, its coverage both omits the huge bulk of progress (the earthwork comprising the right of way at large) and zooms in on incomplete skeletons of structures in the middle of nowhere. And it does so with so much jargon (falsework, formwork, substructure, superstructure, MSE barrier walls, precast girders, guys I'm not a civil engineer?!) that the impression again is that there's something to hide.
Various hobbyists and students (The Four Foot, Drone Zone Flyovers, AmpereBEEP, all seemingly dormant by now) have run circles around CAHSR with their citizen walkthroughs via drone or satellite. And paradoxically, these uncompensated workers are the ones who have shown us that the project is actually coming along decently these days.
Awesome! The Church Ave update was a nice surprise. I'm looking forward to more drone and quarterly updates!
Thanks for the update. I hope I will be able to ride this HSR in my lifetime.
how old are you? 16? maybe. 40? likely not.
@@sadlfjasdfacv I'm still hopeful, but yep old enough to appreciate efficient train travel like in Europe.
Amazing!
Great to see things moving forward
Support local businesses
Cool. Cool, cool, cool. Wishing CA and its residents the best of luck with this project.
Go, CHSR!
..and choose Siemens!
Cheers from 🇩🇪 ;)
Bad idea. 😅
And what do you want, Alstom? They are having problems with their TGV M sets in France - that's their home base and do I have to mention the Avelia Liberty sets on the Northeast Corridor?
@@kristoffermangila There are no problems with the TGV M. They will be slightly delayed (6 months) but thats pretty much to be expected with any projects nowadays.
@@buckdanny9062 Of course they have massive problems right now. The train commutes the entire time between the factory and the test track in Velim. At the EBA they already say internally that the way the TGV M is, it wouldn't even get approval in Germany.
This is all so exciting!
The snails pace of this build is mind boggling. This project will take another 50 years and $5 trillion to complete.
All the money is just spent on fighting lawsuits and land aquisition
It will take about 10-20 years and $100 Billion
@@MaxSnowDudewhich is still insane how other countries can do it for 70% less and 10 times faster
@@ll4680 yeah a lot of boomer and greanpeace environmentalists oppose construction as a principle even if it is good for the environment so CEQA reflects that
@@MaxSnowDude and billions to keep it moving because no one will use it
super cool! thank you construction workers!
There is still a lot of work to be done. Are they sure they're going to be able to test in 2028?
3.5 years is still quite a bit of time. After the earthworks and bridges/viaducts are finished, installing the rails and catentary shouldn't take too long, so testing of the track could begin relatively early. Stations and maintenance buildings will probably take a bit longer and won't be finished by 2028. At least, that's what I imagine.
Trainset testing in 2028 will also be done at the national transportation center in Pueblo, Colorado, so it won’t be on the California tracks.
@@Trojans5050 CAHSR trains are to be tested at up to 242 mph. That's likely faster than Pueblo can handle, making the California HSR tracks the only place trains will be able to safely go that fast.
@@ChrisJones-gx7fcah great point. I just googled it and the max speed at Pueblo is listed at 156mph. They likely can do some testing there but you are right, full speed will need to be done on the mainline.
@@Trojans5050Dynamic testing has to be done on the actual track for long distances. They should be able to do it on the first 119 mile section. They shouldn't have to wait until all the 171 miles are finished to do the dynamic testing.
I'm not a California resident but love transparency!
Yes.😮
Awesome! I can't wait until this is running.
My guess it will never be finished - at least not when the costs for tunneling into Bay Area and LA are disclosed. Even in nearly-flat central valley, with almost no population or right of way issues, it's already vastly over budget. Tunneling thru high seismic areas will see costs balloon to massive levels - of course, they'll try and say 'who coulda known?' - except every contractor and insider knows it right now - they simply choose not to tell taxpyers the truth because this is a lifetime project for those who get the needle into the vein of taxpayers...
Is just another a scam by the California politicians.
They are never going to finish this. It will take 100 years at the current rate. The commenter below is correct.
You'll wait a very long time. We already have. We'll be 6 feet under before they get 6 feet under LA and SF infrastructure to make stations. Enjoy the shitshow.
are there any plans for bus connections to towns that are not served by the rail itself?
Yes, including Los Angeles for the time being. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like there will be a train connection from LA to the CAHSR initial terminus in Bakersfield. Which sucks. However, there will be a train connection from SF to Merced as I understand it.
@@mrxman581 East Bay to Merced, yeah, with bus/BART to reach SF, same as it is now. As for Bakersfield-LA, that’s all the more reason to push funding and building CAHSR’s Bakersfield-Palmdale segment, in addition to Merced-San Jose, so both open at the same time. Hopefully that could happen by the mid to late 2030s, though it depends on when construction starts which probably won’t be earlier than 2031, after Merced-Bakersfield begins service.
Several, both at the ends, and in the central valley proper (look up the "Cross Valley Corridor," which is a plan for phased implementation of bus and then rail service running perpendicular across the valley meeting HSR at Hanford, linking places like Lemoore, Hanford, Visalia, and Porterville )
I am glad that we are finally starting to see real progress and tracktion :) on high speed rail projects across the nation. At some point in the future you could have the option to HSR across the country instead of flying!
Yes and yeah of course California High-Speed Rail in California.😮
0:03 Cool that cali is getting hsr. Please don't make your stations look like that. It'll have the worst glare possible and passengers and the engineer alike will be very uncomfortable arriving and departing these stations while the sun flashes in and out of their vision like a strobe light. Just make a normal train shed. It'll be a lot less intense on passengers and the engineer.
What a massive project. Love to see this coming together.
Keep up the great work! Thanks for the updates
When are we getting the SF to LA line? 2050?
Whenever the California State Government and the Federal Government decide to actually pay up with the funds necessary to actually construct it is your answer. Until that happens, we are stuck with these slow timelines. So far, the California State Government has footed around 80% of the bill which is very unbalanced in terms of major infrastructure projects across US history, like the Interstate Highway System which was closer to 80-90% federal and 10% state/local. They need between $21B and $36B to get to SF from Chowchilla, and between $32B and $53B to get to LA from Bakersfield. Time is money, so the longer we wait, the more expensive it will become. Either we pay the current price now, or pay a much higher price later on.
2500
@@AmpereBEEPVery well said. BTW, are you done with school this year? I need to see if you have any recent videos.
@@mrxman581 Not yet. I have a week left and then I am giving myself a few weeks to relax.
Depends on funding. If it was fully funded now it could probably be finished by 2030. But it's not.
Mexico just finished 2700 miles on 5 years, And it’s have the base to reconstruct 18.000 miles in 12 years. Hopefully someday California become efficient building infrastructure.
🔥🔥 keep up the good work!
Seeing all those workers building this amazing and massive project... I feel like they should have their names embedded somewhere (such as at a station) to commemorate all the work that is going into this.
Still no track laid?
All of this in only fourteen years at a cost of $11,000,000,000, we now have 1,600 feet of track on the ground, just for perspective that is the length of 1/4 mile drag strip with the run off area. Absolutely an unmitigated success story worthy of celebration, kinda like Olympic Break Dancing.
How many yards of concrete did you pour last month? (Crickets)
It’s all public information, feel free to look it all up.
Nice to see the USA building high speed rail. Do you have a video showing the number of people that California High-Speed Rail can move away from domestic flights and/or long freeway drives?
What sort of integration is there going to be with your railway stations and local public transport? Are any of your stations rail hubs? Are you able to put in passive provision to support the reopening of a disused rail line or conversion of a freight line into a metro line that could have an interchange with any of your stations?
In the Central Valley, there is a project dubbed "Cross Valley Corridor" to establish regional rail in the area near the Kings-Tulare HSR station. The north end of the Central Valley segment in Merced is planned to be well integrated with the existing and expanded regional rail service for onward travel to Sacramento and the Bay Area. When the project gets to San Francisco and Los Angeles, those areas will be well integrated with existing networks, sharing corridors and stations with existing regional rail services.
Almost none of the above.
The San Francisco Bay Area has and Los Angeles area each have over 10 million people.
This high speed rail project will connect Merced to Bakersfield. Merced is a small town and Bakersfield is a medium sized town in the mostly rural and agricultural central Valley which is flat.
To connect Los Angeles and San Francisco they have to cross mountains. Here it's already been 16 years and they struggling to cross rural roads and highways. When it comes to mountains and underground urban construction - they will be in for a real challenge.
Merced and Bakersfield are both extremely car-centric cities with limited public transportation.
To be effective, they need options for people to actually be able to use it frequently for things like commuting. Not a once in 3 year trip to Hollywood.
The Northern Central Valley is full of working class people who commute to the SF Bay Area because they can't afford to live there. Bakersfield is full of people who commute to Los Angeles because they can't afford to live there. Then we shame the lower class for having cars because they can't afford million dollar houses. Meanwhile the millionaires in those expensive houses don't want public transport because they don't feel safe on it.
Let's do this! Passenger Train Enthusiasts, Let's Go!! :))
It's great to see that ambitious infrastructure projects are still possible. To all the stans: how's Hyperloop going?
this aint never gonna be finished
It literally will be mostly finished in 2030s and first phase maybe even in 2028 or 2029
@@MarxistNurseNot if the funding dries up. If I am not mistaken this project still needs $90-$100billion to be completed! Hell there some sort of investigation going on in Congress right now with one of the senators point blank asking how they planned to find the needed funds.
Thanks for the update, great to see progress being made!
Is the background music an homage to the decades long history of the project? 😅
Keep going you can do it.
So excited!!!!
I always want California High-Speed Rail in California and I always love California High-Speed Rail in California.😮
And it should be paid by California people in California.
@@onetwothreeabc I look forward to your backward state bankrupting itself trying to maintain its federally funded highway system.
Bot account, just for comments
@@onetwothreeabcI'm OK with CA's tax dollars coming back home instead of paying for Brett Favre's daughter's volleyball stadium in Mississippi. With money set aside to help prevent poverty in one of the statistically most impoverished states in the country. :(
@@mrj8648 I totally support you to audit more on how Fed money is spent in general.
But tax dollars ain’t “coming back” just to one state. If you think CA is paying too much tax to Fed, you can push for a national tax reduction.
SO EXCITING 🎉
I retire in 15 years, I would like to ride the train by then ... from SF to LA, not drive to the central valley to go to some other place in the central valley. Also I hope those trains, whomever gets the contract isn't 10+ year old trains before they're even run.
We really need to push for that $200B Federal HSR Funding bill if we want to get it done within that timeline.
@@AmpereBEEP So you're saying it's not gonna happen :)
@@Mike__B Realistically, no. The Federal Government even now is reluctant to give the Authority more funding which puts even the Merced-Bakersfield segment at risk of slipping by 3 years. Thats at least a guaranteed timeline, but without the key federal support, I do not see this project getting more than enough to get to SF. Maybe at that point they can get private investment to build to LA like Brightline has after getting half of their budget funded? That seems to be what they are betting on at this point.
@@AmpereBEEP there’s no way SoCal will be cool letting HSR end in Bakersfield, and will push to at least get it to Palmdale and the Metrolink connection to LA. That CV-SoCal passenger rail gap is long overdue to be closed.
In a perfect world both the San Jose and Palmdale extensions will be funded and built concurrently, so when HSR trains first reach SF they’ll also reach Metrolink to LA, allowing the all-rail SF-LA journey with one easy transfer in Palmdale. There’s also the plausibility of electrifying and sharing the AV Line as an interim route to get HSR trains into LA and start direct SF-LA service sooner, before 2040, while CHSRA funds and builds its Palmdale-LA segment.
@@AmpereBEEP Without the Federal support, and also with the rather tepid distance state legislators and the governor have had about any reliable state funding (Cap and Trade being neither particularly large, variable, and ending in 2030) I definitely agree.
Tren Maya was completed in 7 years. 1000 miles. 20 billion dollars. Yucatan...Campeche...and more! Choo choo
What was the original projected cost, and what is the current cost as of this year?
😂 the answer to both is too much
I admire California's efforts on this project. I live in Texas where all we do is talk about high speed rail and do absolutely nothing to building it. But our governor has spent millions putting concertina wire on the border, so we do have that.😵
Interesting, Japan took 5 years starting in 1959 to build it's 320 mile Shinkansen line. When did this project start again?
It hasn't started. Is just another scam by the California's Democrats.
Where did all the money go that we voted on to repair the Oroville Dam? Nobody knows. That money disappeared and then several years later the damn failed.
they started planning the bullet train before the second world war in like 1930 it took more like 30 years for it to begin
It has created jobs and that is a great thing!
Why would anyone want to rush a project like this is crazy. You want them to take their time to make sure it will be safe to ride. Don't cut corners just because the public is impatient. Some of the negative comments are amazing. smh
Don't listen to the nattering nabobs of negativity. Push the project forward to completion.
It's so funny watching California bankrupt itself with this project and not even get a single mile of running track out of it🤣
@@westside213 so funny looking at out-of-staters thinking the state that gives more money to the feds than it receives is going bankrupt because of one underfunded, relativity small infrastructure project
Agreed. It is critically important that America supports this project.
Yea don't stop wasting money, I mean it's only been 15 years and we still have essentially zero progress...and the cost has quadrupled....but you go California! You can do it by year 2100 we are rooting for you!
wtf is a nabob? Anyone who lives in cali obviously has wanted this to happen so long that they forgot it was actually happening. The bleeding of money on projects is so apparent here we might as well start mining for gold again and drain Tahoe.
Keep it up!!
Nice update! Hopefully CAHSR selects Siemens for the traincars. Alstom has not proven to be reliable at all with all their delays in the East Coast
Is there any place where the differences and engineering decisions for each of these locations is described? Just seems like each of these have unique characteristics and I don't understand why they are not more consistent.
Each CP (1, 2-3, and 4) was built by a different contractor, who each designed and then built that segment. Going forward, CHSRA is going to have segments designed first before having contractors bid for them, which should reduce the cost and make construction happen faster.
Go with Siemens !!!!!
YEA German companies with Nazi WW2 ties!!!
It seems like they're doing the best they can to keep vehicular traffic and the railway apart. GREAT! When you have a level crossing, you _will_ have accidents.
Keep going CAHSR!
guess which one will be completed first, India HSR or CA HSR?
Of course, India’s. Despite being 503 km (312 miles) all viaduct route and 21 km tunnel (5km undersea), 153 km viaduct with 300 km foundation/pier work already complete. Construction started in 2019 and will complete by 2027-28. Cost is also USD 20B.
Trick question! California will never finish - costs have already spiralled out of control and this section is far-and-away the easiest/cheapest portion. Tunnelling into Bay Area/LA will involve multiples-higher costs.
Both will finish in 2028 .. and both will be success ..
@@unclekanaamcuttingwalahai332 2028? Oh dear. They won't even have begun tunneling - and by that time, their absurd lowball cost estimates will be a fantasy.
@@ArthurDentZaphodBeeb there is olympic in 2028.. so I think its possible they will work their @ss off before olympic to finish the project..and I dont think US should think about cost ..
BUILD BABY BUILD LETS GOOO
finally another one
also what about the section from shafter to bakersfield, on google maps you can see that the construction stops somewhere just north of shafter but the segment all the way to bakersfield is supposed to be open by 2030. is it just gonna start soon and be construction package 5?
They got the federal grant funding for finishing the final bits to Bakersfield and Merced awarded this past December, which was the green light to start final design and land aquisition. It's fine that the end bits will be following behind the rest of it by a couple of years, since they need about that amount of time for train testing, which that they can complete on the part that's already under construction now.
Great.... let's get it done!
I think high-speed rail is a great solution to California transportation needs. In fact, I think regular-speed rail could be a pretty good solution. Wish we had that between SoCal and NorCal. Much of the current "train" trip from L.A. to Sacramento is spent on a darn BUS! LosAngeles to Bakersfield via bus with Pure Anarchy Loading at Union Station. No reservations, no crowd control, late arrivals board first, handicapped passengers just have to wait. Whoever fights hardest gets on first and takes whatever seat they want. I hope the same people who run Anthrax, excuse me Amtrak, won't be in charge of any part of the HSR system.
How do you spell Boondoggle?
It'a fun boondoggle tho so why not?
H-I-g-h-w-a-y
@@interstellarphred So I assume you grow all your own food because that all gets shipped to your grocery store on a highway.......And obviously you NEVER drive on an interstate. Correct???
@@aaronaigner3481 bikes
prohibited
I hope the stations actually turn out like the renders, but if its anything like transit in America you just know it'll be a station in the middle of a gigantic parking lot.
The comment section really highlighting the brain rot of conservative californians and the power of the oil lobby
Why you don’t show the one Los Angeles to Vegas?
Lots of pretty pictures of imaginary things, even a full scale model, wow. Look what billions can get for you.
Did you not see all of the infrastructure improvements made throughout the central valley of California that historically have been neglected compared to the rest of the state?
@@MarxistNurse And where does that get us? So, we had to get raked over coals for our tax money to purchase a unicorn of HSR, only to benefit the CV of CA because they were historically neglected? Sounds a lot like money laundering. For simps such as yourself, why don't you just give more of your own money each month to the CV of CA so that they can be less neglected? Bypass the money laundering and corruption that runs amok in the state gov't?
Nothing imaginary about it. The work is being done.
How many employees work for the California High Speed Authority and what is the fiscal impact of these staff costs on California's operating budget including underfunded retirement shortfalls? Why did a contractor recently leave the project to perform work in another state? What is the annual cost of interest payments to the bonds and what budget do these interest payments come from? What was the original promised cost estimate and now what it the total cost estimate for the finished project as originally proposed? Is there a legal limit to the amount of bonds that can be sold for this project?
You should try emailing them instead of commenting on UA-cam. Much more likely to get answers there.
The best part about this project's progress is the side effect. The waterfall of tears cried by the NIMBYs will do nothing to stop the project, but is so great it will replenish the state's water supply! Keep building keep going CAHSR!
Heard you took a Gold in Mental Gymnastics. Keep up the hard work.
If it ever gets built, how much are tickets going to cost? Using Eurostar as a comparison, I would guess that a ride from LA to SF will cost about $200-300 one way.
One thing you will never see on these cheerleading sites is how much money this would lose every year in the unlikely event of it ever being completed. The original proposition assured voters that losses would not be subsidized. If they are honest about that, tickets will run into the many hundreds if not thousands. Obviously they won't be honest, so they will be subsidizing more billions operating it every year. I honestly think that the democrats know what a money pit this is, and they are just trying to keep this on life support until Trump is elected so they can then close it down and somehow blame him. Their target audience will swallow it whole.
No wonder the money is going missing. They are building roads with HSR Money!
Blame the State Government for allowing Caltrans to pull money from other agencies!
Building roads over/under railroad tracks… can't have at-grade crossings for true high speed rail.
Keep up the great work! We need more trains and less cars.