Tehachapi
Author: Sgt. Joe Friday
Date: 09-28-2014 - 19:19
The only option that is not going to be cost prohibitive then is "semi-high speed" rail. That is, CADOT (or some other government agency) pays for triple tracking the Mojave-Bakersfield line, reducing grades and track curvature wherever possible to allow the average speed LA-Bakersfield to be reduced to, let's say, 3.5 or 4 hours (from the previous 5+ hours on Espee) for the 171 miles. A 40 MPH average speed does not seem unreasonable.
For the remaining 300 miles to SFO-OAK, if a 90 MPH average speed could be managed, then a door-to-door trip to the Bay Area would be time competitive with driving, IOW about 7 hours. For passengers traveling Bakersfield-OAK, you'd be looking at 3-1/3 hours, certainly much faster than driving.