CAHSR Phase 2 | California High Speed Rail Merced to Sacramento

hey it's your old pal Lucid stew again and we are back looking at California highspeed rail Phase 2 Last Time We examined a possible route from Los Angeles to San Diego as it wo its way through some tricky Terrain in San Diego County this time we'll investigate the other component of phase 2 the route from Merced to Sacramento Merced never heard of it where is it and why are we starting there Merced is a city of about 100,000 people in California Central Valley it is probably best known as one of the two gateways to yuse National Park mered is also known for its University of California Campus one of only 10 in California's highest tier of public educational institutions we start there because Merced is the northern Terminus of the initial operating segment that is being built currently as such it is part of California High-Speed Rail Phase 1 from San Francisco to Los Angeles and Anaheim when California highspeed rail Phase 1 is complete it will meet up with Amtrak sanin the ultimat corridor Express passenger Rail and the bus at the Merced station on the other end you have Sacramento Sacramento is the capital of California has a population of 550,000 and is the heart of a metro area comprising 2.4 million people this makes it the sixth largest City and fifth largest metro in the state and 28th largest metro in the country major industries in the Sacramento area include government healthc care and big Tech also of note is Seaman Mobility which manufactures passenger rail locomotives and cars in the area they might just end up making the trains for California High-Speed Rail there Sacramento is currently one of the termin for the Amtrak sanin service Sacramento is also on Amtrak's Capital Corridor local Transit is provided by Sacramento Regional Transit which consists of Light Rail and Bus Services Sacramento International Airport is the only commercial airport of significance in the Central Valley North of Fresno in between there will be stops at two medium-sized cities Modesto population 220,000 Modesto's Transit is provided by Stan RTA which includes regular bus service and express bus service to Regional Transit centers and Stockton population 320,000 Stockton is served by San Wen RTD which has regular bus and bus Rapid Transit rail includes Amtrak and the ultimat corridor Express Stockton has the Stockton Metropolitan airport but it's used for commercial flights is limited one thing to keep in mind is that High-Speed Rail is going to alter the passenger rail landscape here significantly so existing Services may become obsolete or need to adapt to the highspeed rail alignment before we start with the route let's take a look at some things the California highspeed rail Authority is or will be doing on its initial 119 M Construction segment to get an idea of how engineering challenges are being addressed in the Central Valley starting on the southern end we have the town of shaer California highspeed rail got $200 million from the Chrissy program to trench the area through here and that includes the BNSF Bakersfield subdivision lines the solution extends for almost 4 mil and the rail ride of way is about 100 ft wide for both sets of tracks this avoids Seven atg Grade Crossings a little farther north is the Wasco Viaduct this is a structur that allows the California High-Speed Rail tracks to transition from one side of the BNSF RightWay to the other in a curve in Fresno we start with the cedar Viaduct which is about a mile of flyover infrastructure to transition into downtown Fresno from the south in a curve probably most important to the example is the fact that this crosses both Cedar Avenue and the State Route 99 Freeway mid intersection in the downtown Fresno area there is 300 ft of width to work with in this case north of the cedar Viaduct The Authority has opted to stay at grade and move existing infrastructure either over or under the tracks that then transitions into a trench to deal with Freight spur lines while simultaneously interacting with a highway flyover one more in Fresno proper this Frontage Road Golden State Boulevard was in the way so they opted to move it and put the California highspeed rail tracks in the old roadway alignment last example at the northeastern Fresno City Limits The sanen River Viaduct an of used example of California highspeed rail infrastructure this time tackling the compound problem of needing to fly over the Union Pacific tracks and cross the sanin river all these options are available to similar situations likely encountered from Merced to Sacramento as alignments and terrain are similar let's get started we're looking at the future Merced California High-Speed Rail Station site this is what it will look like when completed Amtrak and Ace will share this station although as mentioned things may change if highspeed rail is expanded north of here coming into mered from the south they're looking at taking out the entire block Southwest of the rideway to make room for the tracks according to the build hsr.com map this will continue to the Northwest all the way through downtown this would include taking out several car dealerships who knows what the authority will have to buy the city to make up for that the route here will also need to cross Bear Creek and then within 1/3 of a mile duck under State Route 99 there is a road here called SP Avenue that will likely get the golden State Boulevard treatment and in the process they'll take out about half a dozen homes 5 mil Northwest of Merced is at water and the situation here is similar to the Shafter example we looked at only a little shorter and with three Crossings instead of seven sr99 crosses over the freight ride of way twice in this specific area the ride of way is also constrained so probably looking at putting both California High-Speed Rail and up in a trench that will need to be about a mile and a half before coming back up to cross a canal there is an atg grade crossing here that they'll likely close another 10 Mi Northwest of Merced at Livingston conforming to the freight ride of way with limit speed here to about 150 mph the build hsr.com map has the route cutting the corner this is similar to the Wasco and and sanen River examples combined with the added complication of needing to fly over sr99 I have a 3M radius curve possible over the Merced river which would enable about 200 mph the next complication comes into play outside of Turlock at the sr99 Golden State Boulevard exit the solution is simple get rid of the divided highway then the California High-Speed Rail tracks can go where the Northbound lanes are currently the rail right of way through parts of Turlock is only 100 ft wide so we're looking at another joint trench this one looks like it would need to go under nine currently at grade Crossings only one of those looks like it can be closed the trench would be about 4 mil long just south of the Modesto station there is a 110 mph S curve that can notot be avoided or improved without tunneling that does not appear to be indicated on the California highspeed Rail map so the train will simply slow here the rideway through downtown Modesto is narrow with six at grade Crossings given the propensity toward elevated stations so far they will likely choose Viaduct here this is supported by the fact that they'll need to go over the talami river a mile from the station Northwest of Modesto another elevated segment at Salida this one only about a mile long this would be a trench but there are irrigation canals on either end just Northwest of that would be a 1,000 ft long bridge to cross the Stanis slos River flood plane they may also switch sides with Freight in this area with a Pergola Viaduct between rippen and Mantika near the junction of State routes 99 and 120 things get complicated the route on the California High-Speed Rail map would start plowing through hundreds of structures here with a station site that makes no sense the lower resolution map implies usage of the State Route 99 Corridor but this is also not tenable it makes sense that the route deviates from Freight there are a couple of large Union Pacific Rail Yards that would be difficult to bypass the alternative I came up with mostly skirts Mantika and Stockton to the east with curves at about 175 mph which was the fastest I could manage while minimizing damage you'd still be looking at about 25 structures destroyed and probably a 100 properties crossed for the alternative let's go over this part by part breaking out of the rail RightWay next to State Route 99 the California highspeed rail line would eyeses over sr99 in a 175 mph curve and take out about 10 houses in the process this would continue due north passing over BNSF tracks near their stockt in Intermodal facility the route would enter a high-speed curve over the Stockton diverting canal and then into another 175 mph curve before getting to my choice for a stockt in station site the the site would be on State Route 88 which has good access to State Route 99 and downtown the southern end of the station site would have access to a rail spur that hooks into the up Fresno subdivision near downtown Stockton another station possibility would be in the central California traction company ride of way near the intersection of Hammer Lane and State Route 99 which would also provide good freeway access and the possibility of a rail Transit connection to downtown also lots of fresh Transit oriented development opportunities there one thing that's missing here is connections to existing Transit but there may not be much Choice the intersection with BNSF RightWay at the inter motal yard is an option but it's not the most desirable living area the route would then continue in the CCT ride of way for about 10 mies through Loi at which point the route transitions from CCT to Union Pacific at highp speed this transition would need to rise up over a CCT spur blow through a large Warehouse cross the mochal Lum River and then cross the intersection of Woodbridge Road and State Route 99 diagonally Cedar viu style so it's a pretty involved section they'll need quite a bit of Viaduct but other than the we house the destruction would be remarkably minimal considering the Union Pacific RightWay north of there is straight for almost 30 Mi however it starts encountering residential aspects of the Sacramento suburbs after about 15 miles I'm counting 13 atg grade intersections that will need to be resolved I think this can be sealed without issue but I'm assuming speed through these residential areas will be limited to to 125 mph possibly 110 mph if this section is Blended like parts of phase 1 from us50 into the Sacramento Valley Station the route is grade separated with a couple of exceptions however there are some slows speeed curves like this one next to CSU Sacramento a slows speeed y would likely limit speed to 30 or 40 mph so it's going to be under 60 MPH through the Urban part of Sacramento but only for about 5 miles the last few miles may require some creative engineering to interact with two Union Pacific wise but the rideway is plenty wide for two more tracks speaking of those wise one presents an interesting opportunity for expansion to Yuba City and Chico to the North in a hypothetical 82m phase 3 that has about zero chance of happening before the war with the machine back to Sacramento this is a Terminus for California highspeed rail Phase 2 so they may simply take over part of the existing Sacramento Valley Station similar to the plan for La Union Station the Sacramento station is located at the edge of the downtown area a couple of blocks from the recently completed Golden One Center home of the Sacramento Kings however the station is in the middle of a large area that is actively being developed Ved into mixed use right now so there you have it we've managed to get from Merced to Sacramento without too much damage but before we get to the fiscal damage let's talk about travel times Sacramento to Modesto 77 m in 33 minutes at an average of 140 mph stockt into Merced 66 m in 26 minutes at an average of 152 mph hour Modesto to Bakersfield 251 m in 90 minutes for an average of 1067 mph Stockton to San Jose 190 m in 67 minutes at an average of 170 mph Sacramento to San Francisco 283 m in 109 minutes at an average of 156 mph that route is so circuitous it's three times longer and about 20 minutes slower than driving Sacramento to Los Angeles 430 m in 2 hours 21 minutes at an average of 183 mph of those routes only Sacramento to La is mentioned in Proposition 1 a at 2 hours 20 minutes required so they are cutting it thin and delicious pretty ballsy putting a 180 m per hour average speed requirement in the law and you definitely won't be driving between those two faster than that that is also about half an hour faster than flying all things considered now the big question what is all this speed in the Delta going to cost my method is simple and quick I look at what the ride of-way is like does it exist already or are we cutting new rideway I look at what kind of track we're putting down is it at grade AAL or trench where the track is going Urban Suburban or rural areas and lastly I'm adjusting for regional variations in engineering and construction cost in this case California is on the expensive side considering these factors I came up with a cost for this 114m Merced to Sacramento route of 20.3 billion in 2028 that's a similar cost per mile to the baker fied to Merced section of the Central Valley adjusted for inflation to a more realistic completion year of 20150 that is 35.1 billion if you recall in my Los Angeles to San Diego video I said Phase 1 plus San Diego would be about $190 billion add this in to complete the $800m California High-Speed Rail System and you're looking at about 225 billon which is actually what I predicted in my California highspeed rail is in big big trouble video Spooky I hope you enjoyed exploring this route in closer detail with me if you have any opinions about this video or just highspeed rail in general please leave them in the comments plenty more City pair investigations like this one still to come more Federal Railroad High-Speed Rail Corridor videos left and another stews news on the last Friday of the month but that's all for now until next time I'll see you on that big beautiful [Music] [Laughter] [Music] freeway

Channel: Lucid Stew

Views: 31,212

Keywords: CAHSR, California High Speed Rail, Phase 2, Merced, Modesto, Stockton, Sacramento, California

Id: AKLykY-1Wrk

Length: 18min 25sec (1105 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 22 2023