We’ve covered electric sports cars, electric three-wheeled cars and other forms of clean transportation that Silicon Valley investors have been pumping money into over the last several years. But this November, Californians will have a fascinating new transportation option to consider: A high-speed rail network that would connect all of the major urban areas of the state, to be financed in part by a $10 billion voter-approved bond measure.
While there are many issues that may hold up this plan, it is visionary, and could go a long way in keeping California (and Silicon Valley) competitive as one of the largest, most dynamic economies in the world. The bond is pending approval in the state legislature, but looks likely to pass after having gained governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s support last week.
Trains going as fast as 220mph would run between Sacramento and the Bay Area in the northern part of the state as well as down through the Central Valley to Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego in the south (map here). You would be able to travel between downtown San Francisco and downtown LA in 2.5 hours for $24, or between San Jose and Sacramento in 1.5 hours for $18, according to the plan’s projections.
It’s hard to calculate the value that a project like this would have in the long run, in the same sense that it was hard to calculate the value of some of the first railroads, highways and major bridges in this state. But it’s easy to imagine a range of benefits for Silicon Valley, and it’s not just a matter of getting local investors and entrepreneurs more easily connected to digital media companies in Hollywood or biotech companies in San Diego.
The train would help Silicon Valley to become more accessible to lower-income and middle-income workers who can no longer afford to live here, people who instead live in Central Valley cities like Stockton or Modesto and spend hours driving back and forth to work in the Bay each day. The planned network includes a series of stops in Central Valley towns.
Then there’s the pollution issue. The agency charged with planning, building and operating the network, the California High-Speed Rail Authority, has (unsurprisingly) rosy projections about how the project will cut back on greenhouse emissions. After implementation — think 2020 or beyond — the network expects to remove 1.4 million cars from the road (saving 10,000 cars from accidents per year), reduce state CO2 emissions by up to 17.6 billion pounds per year and reduce the state’s consumption of oil by up to 22 million barrels per year.
