"A Subway to the Sea": Californian's Rail Future?The other night during one of my relatively frequent episodes of insomnia I decided to undertake the task of conducting a whirlwind tour of the web in search of California rail-related news. I was surprised to find some very interesting and somewhat optimistic articles, articles which I think every Californian should read with an open mind and an ounce of positivity. After all, it couldn't hurt for us to not be so cynical once in a while.
First on my stop was a great article in this week's edition of the L.A. Weekly entitled, "
The Subway Mayor". This piece discusses in some detail the history of public transit in Los Angeles from the Red Car, to the abandonment of rail, to the failed attempt at building a subway, and beyond. As much as I don't care for Mayor Villaraigosa, perhaps he will be able to demonstrate the inspired leadership necessary to come up with creative--and progressive--solutions to Los Angeles' traffic woes.
Next on my route was an interesting site belonging to the
California MAGLEV Alliance. Although many may scoff at the thought of a monorail or MAGLEV, especially in Southern California, it seems that this organization is actually making some serious progress. The California MAGLEV Alliance is a group that is attempting to push for the development of an extremely high-speed magnetic levitation railroad (similar to the one that exists in Shanghai, China) that would connect Orange County through Los Angeles to Palmdale (with stops along the way). Their pet project is the
Orangeline, which--according to their site--is supported officially by fourteen Southern Californian cities (all listed at the link I have provided to the project). In June of this year the Orangeline project began moving forward with the awarding of a development contract. Perhaps this is the start of something very good?
Next was a stop at the Federal Railroad Administration's homepage where I ultimately located an interesting report summary relating to a
California High-Speed Rail Corridor. It was nice to know that the government has been at least
thinking about the prospect of a high speed (or faster) rail corridor connecting San Francisco to San Diego. According to the study, Los Angeles and San Diego are currently linked via rail by technology that dates back to the "mid-20th century". The FRA has been investigating the potential to upgrade these lines--perhaps to MAGLEV--and has in fact provided the State of California with $6.275M (through FY 2004) in order for the state to upgrade existing rail crossings for such a high-speed route!
My rail excursion ended in a manner similar to how it had begun: with a retrospective look back at (arguably) one of
the worst transit decisions the city had ever made. It seems that in 1963 the Alweg Monorail Company offered to build the City of Los Angeles a monorail transit system, free of charge. Alweg would operate the system for a period of time before ultimately turning it over to the city. The project had great support until Standard Oil got involved...squashing the project before it even got started and casting the die for the traffic woes that all of us Angelinos face today.
With gas prices soaring toward $3.00 per gallon and rush hour lasting 24 hours a day, Los Angeles (and the state of California) must act swiftly to develop solutions before the city and state slow to a standstill. How much longer can we endure the traffic? the pollution? the hit to our wallets? How much longer will we insist on sitting in our giant SUV's when a terrific solution (albeit a costly one in the short-term) lies smack dab in front of our faces. It is time to get out of our cars and onto a train...if only such a system of rail transit existed.
I would love to hear
your thoughts on the subject. Please feel free to comment on this post and share your opinion. Better yet, write your local and state politicians and let THEM know what you think!
posted at 09:50