The Antelope Valley Times

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L.A. mayor ‘not yet’ in support of proposed bullet train route

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Image courtesy, California Highway Speed Rail Authority.

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Friday that he is “not yet” in support of a bullet train route, selected by California High-Speed Rail Authority staffers, that would travel through neighborhoods in the northeast San Fernando Valley.

The proposed route, which still needs to be approved by the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s board, calls for the 38-mile Burbank-to- Palmdale section to include 24 miles underground and a portion in the Pacoima area above ground.

During an hourlong news conference with reporters where he took questions on a number of subjects, Garcetti was asked about the route and said, “I haven’t come out in support of it, but I haven’t opposed it.”

The mayor said he wanted to know more about the route, including what kind of an impact it might have on local jobs.

“I want to make sure that there’s a benefit for the people there. Are they making promises for jobs, for instance … for folks living in low- income areas and who may need good middle class jobs,” Garcetti said. “Will they make some benefit to the beautification of the area, because it’s a very dense area, perhaps the densest area in the state that it will go through, short of downtown, for that line to be there. I’m supportive of us having high speed rail in the state, I think it’s going to be very necessary to meet our environmental goals.”

In a webcast this week where the route was announced as the preferred one among three being considered, Michelle Boehm, the rail authority’s Southern California regional director, said it “strikes the best balance” while considering safety, cost and the impact on communities and the environment.

The organization S.A.F.E. (Save Angeles Forest for Everyone) said it opposed all three routes under consideration and wants the rail authority to come up with new alternative routes.

“This imperfect announcement matches its imperfect timing, its imperfect result, its imperfect intent, and its imperfect agency,” the group said in a statement. “Rather than clearing the decks by abandoning all three flawed alternatives and heading back to the drawing board as we’ve strongly recommended, CHSRA believes they’ve chosen the alternative that is the `best candidate’ or `strikes the best balance.”‘

The $77 billion Los Angeles-to-San Francisco portion of the train project has an estimated completion date of 2033, but there is no funding in place yet to build the Southern California portion while work is currently underway on the Central Valley portion.

Garcetti said he is concerned that SoCal could end up with no train but with its taxpayers helping pay the bill of a Northern California route. He also said he had strongly opposed another considered route that would have built a bridge over the Tujunga Wash and had advocated for the existing Metrolink commuter rail right-of-way from Burbank to Palmdale to be considered, although rail authority staffers said it was too curvy. He also said that he hopes a tunnel or trench will still be considered for the San Fernando Valley portion.

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Filed Under: Palmdale

23 comments for "L.A. mayor ‘not yet’ in support of proposed bullet train route"

  1. Care to take a wild guess what a Mexifornia-to-Vegas bullet train will inevitably look like, one week into service? Better known as Tijuana baroque, envision a trainload of punks, drunks and potheads, alcohol and vomit soaked upholstery, each car tagged by rival Los Angeles urban street-gang Hispanics with graffiti, just walk into any restroom, here in Mexifornia.

  2. I’d rather travel on the Greyhound and wait 4 to 5 hours than to pay a higher tax for something I would only use once a year or less.

  3. Dismal planning, no transportation analyst worth his salt would ever advocate a L.A. to Vegas route. Targeting too specific a cohort (compulsive gamblers; heavy drinkers), settlement patterns in Los Angeles metro far too diffuse for a SoCal-Vegas bullet train to be viable, 1st year bankruptcy is certain. A spatially diversified route should be otherwise engineered north-south, Los Angeles to Sacramento, with perpendicular arteries emanating from northern, central and southern California extending eastward, eventually interconnecting, to form an transcontinental high speed rail network, as other states develop theirs.

    • LOL…whether you want to score big vocabulary points with “specific cohort” or just be a regular joe, your analysis is horribly flawed. Here’s the simple fact: the number one traveled route in the country is the eastern seaboard corridor from DC through Philly to NYC. The second is LA to Vegas. PRIVATE ENTERPRISE isn’t looking to build this route because it won’t pay.

      I’m starting to wonder about these repetitious posts from “different people” who all use similar vocabulary to talk about their idea of the “right” network. First off, the LA-Vegas route proposed by PRIVATE ENTERPRISE isn’t a conflict with the LA to Bay Area route the state has been working towards for years, which is the north south artery these “people” are calling for. (though for some reason they say Sacramento instead of the Bay Area…could they be so closely related with politicians that they have Sacramento on the brain?)

      The thing that makes me wonder is that at recent regional transportation meetings, now that they got Ledford out of the way, Marvin Crist (representing the looters of Lancaster) has been blatantly drooling over high desert corridor money earmarked to invest in right of way. See, him and the boys have been buying up desert out along East Avenue D and if they can throw enough spanners in the works to force a ‘start over’ they could shift the route to property they own, and then use the 170 million to buy that land from themselves. That’s the Wrecks Parris and the Lancaster looters way.

      So, tell me “Smirly” with the vocabulary, you wouldn’t happen to be a lawyer from the Wrecks Parris law firm speaking on his behalf, would you? One of the operatives deployed by his attack dog, DUI Drew maybe? Fill us in on your details, since it seems obvious that your motives aren’t aligned with doing anything for the regular joes of the AV.

    • Dismal planning? No transportation analyst worth his salt? Are you part of the Parris-Crist-Hofbauer-Bishop-Carrillo group of mensas? This is a private for profit company that we are talking about. They see the profit potential. All our local yokels see is how they can gain control and enrich themselves and their cohorts.

      Yes, they are working to undermine all that has been done so far. Let us hope that people will come to their senses soon before this place turns into Rexville a la Back to the Future model of Biffsvilke.

    • Smirly…There are a lot of people that say unless it would cost less than taking a bus or plane (which is inexpensive), they wouldn’t use the train, so you’re right. By the way, anyone’s vocabulary doesn’t define whether a person is a regular joe. A lot of people that comment, and think an analysis is flawed, not knowing their so called analysis is conjecture, except for a small amount of facts to make it look good.

      • A friend of mine once had a business thing in Vegas and wanted to stay over for the weekend. His wife couldn’t go for the whole trip, and they asked if I could drive her to the airport since she would be riding back with him. I drove her to Vegas instead because it was less hassle for all concerned. People who say “I wouldn’t get on a train, I’d rather drive to the airport, get there and hang out for the TSA required hour minimum, then spend time on an airplane that is comparable to the time I would spend on the train,” are just being silly.

    • Wow, only drunks and gamblers huh?
      Way to dismiss all the concert goers, convention folk, and business entities.
      If 1st year bankruptcy were guaranteed then the principal party would not be able to get loans to start the project.
      You are still confusing a public built (our California HST) with this private built (LA2Vegas) route. It is like comparing Amtrak (national) with any Metro (local).
      You do not like the idea – do not use it.

  4. The most controversial and costly, easiest to build, and cause the least harm. That is of course the communities it would negatively impact, and causing harm to human lives along the way. Whoever lives in the path will be offered a minimum dollar amount for their property and if refused will be taken anyway.

    • Garcetti is a politician with presidential aspirations. He knows what it will mean in terms of economic benefit but he has constituents (a.k.a. voters) to deal with. However, he is light years smarter than the Rex/Marv/Hoffbauer/Bishop/Mercy/Mahli/Mann/Carrillo/Hall/Vose/Yada Yada Yada group here in the AV.

  6. … a properly conceived and properly planned high speed rail network for California, its principle north-south route should be San Diego-Los Angeles-Sacramento, with three principle east-west arteries, going (1) Oakland-Sacramento-Carson City, (2) San Luis Obispo-Bakersfield-Las Vegas, and (3) San Diego-Phoenix. Bad policy, the height of folly, a Los Angeles-Las Vegas bullet train is myopic.

    • Well, myopic other than being the second most traveled route in the US anyway. Oh, wait, that actually makes it a very good prospective route. As opposed to ANY route to Carson City? Who the heck goes to Carson City…on a bullet train or otherwise?