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Re: California High-Speed Rail: Some Views From the Valley
Author: mook
Date: 07-31-2014 - 18:41
For the Central Valley in general: it's a bad place to live for air quality, mainly because it's topographically the LA Basin writ large, and hotter. It's a great place to grow things (when there's water), though. Maybe there should be a training session and qualifying exam for non-farm-related people who want to live there: what's involved with farming and what you have to put up with.
I do remember one particularly cold winter in north Fresno, after the roar of frost fans (diesel-powered at the time) had been going for over a week, early one morning while getting ready for work, suddenly, bit by bit, it got quiet. At below 20F. It's a sad (lack of) sound. Just like now, with a sad (lack of) water that will put a lot of people out of business and set farming back for many years.
As a practical matter, it'll take 20 years or more to build most of the HSR "starter" line. So any benefit from it related to emissions (and I do agree with the article/series that there will be one, just skeptical about how much and when) will be a long time coming, and to the extent that a lot of the emissions are from through trucks (and a bit from trains) - which they are, though not the majority - those won't be touched by HSR (though electrifying the trains and making improvements that allow them to take some through truck business might help). And yes, the SJV has bad PM pollution, but also ozone; ozone damages many crops and other vegetation, and the majority is NOT from the farmers.
On another note: see the article in the Times a couple of days ago about HSR wanting to tunnel straight through the San Gabriels from Palmdale to Burbank rather than detour via Santa Clarita? If that's on the table, how about bringing back the Tejon Tunnels? Makes more sense - probably would end up costing less than the Palmdale route + big S.G. tunnel. IMO, the only reasons to go via Palmdale are to save a few bucks, have a more flexible schedule by using Metrolink for a while, and connect with a Las Vegas train if it ever happens. The big deal was cost savings. Lose that and the Tejon Tunnels look really good.
I do remember one particularly cold winter in north Fresno, after the roar of frost fans (diesel-powered at the time) had been going for over a week, early one morning while getting ready for work, suddenly, bit by bit, it got quiet. At below 20F. It's a sad (lack of) sound. Just like now, with a sad (lack of) water that will put a lot of people out of business and set farming back for many years.
As a practical matter, it'll take 20 years or more to build most of the HSR "starter" line. So any benefit from it related to emissions (and I do agree with the article/series that there will be one, just skeptical about how much and when) will be a long time coming, and to the extent that a lot of the emissions are from through trucks (and a bit from trains) - which they are, though not the majority - those won't be touched by HSR (though electrifying the trains and making improvements that allow them to take some through truck business might help). And yes, the SJV has bad PM pollution, but also ozone; ozone damages many crops and other vegetation, and the majority is NOT from the farmers.
On another note: see the article in the Times a couple of days ago about HSR wanting to tunnel straight through the San Gabriels from Palmdale to Burbank rather than detour via Santa Clarita? If that's on the table, how about bringing back the Tejon Tunnels? Makes more sense - probably would end up costing less than the Palmdale route + big S.G. tunnel. IMO, the only reasons to go via Palmdale are to save a few bucks, have a more flexible schedule by using Metrolink for a while, and connect with a Las Vegas train if it ever happens. The big deal was cost savings. Lose that and the Tejon Tunnels look really good.
