Why not expand slower, conventional rail services?
Steel-wheel-on-steel rail at lower speed (below 200 mph) was considered and rejected as part of the certified Statewide Program EIR/EIS document (see Section 2.6.6). Foreign high-speed train experience, the experience of the Northeast Corridor (Boston to New York to Washington, D.C.), high-speed train studies done elsewhere in the U.S., and the Authoritys feasibility studies have all shown that to compete with air transportation and generate high ridership and revenue, the intercity high-speed train travel times between major transportation markets must be below 3 hours. Amtraks California Passenger Rail System: 20-Year Improvement Plan (Amtrak, March 2001) suggests that by 2020 the improved conventional rail service between Oakland and Bakersfield with 110 mph maximum speeds could be reduced to 4 hours and 55 minutes (as compared with 6 hours and 9 minutes in 2000). Using the current 2.5-hour thruway bus connection between Bakersfield and Los Angeles, this would result in an Oakland t
