The California High-Speed Rail Authority is proposing a change to the configuration of the tracks planned for its 33-mile route from Los Angeles to Anaheim.
While the plan, called the “shared passenger track alternative,” isn’t set in stone, Jim Patrick, a spokesperson for California High-Speed Rail Authority, said it is likely the option the agency will move toward making official and work to get environmental clearance for. It would add a fourth track on the line down to Fullerton; two tracks would be used from there to Anaheim.
The California High-Speed Rail project hopes to move passengers from Anaheim to San Francisco at top speeds of more than 220 mph. Construction work is well underway in the Central Valley to start moving passengers from Bakersfield to Merced by around 2030. Service in the Southern California region is planned for 2040. More than 30 million people a year are expected to ride the line.
Traveling from the Los Angeles Union Station to Anaheim’s ARTIC station is expected take 46 minutes under the new proposal. The route from Los Angeles passes through Norwalk and Fullerton on its way to Anaheim and is estimated to cost more than $6 billion to build.
There are already three existing mainline tracks near Union Station and where a possible Fullerton station would go. Adding the fourth mainline track will give more room for freight rail, Metrolink and high-speed rail to operate in the corridor.
The changes in the Los Angeles to Anaheim segment come in part due to community opposition to a proposed freight facility in Colton.
“So instead of holding freight trains to keep them off the three existing lines, we are building a fourth line,” Patrick said. “We are gonna have two lines for freight trains and two lines for passenger trains running between Los Angeles and Anaheim.”
At times the freight trains could run on the passenger tracks, but not vice versa.
The Rail Authority’s board will hear a presentation of the new…
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