The private provider Brightline already operates trains in Florida.
(Photo: © 2017 Bloomberg Finance LP)
san francisco Actually, the high-speed train should have been commuting between Los Angeles and San Francisco for a long time, but so far there are only a few bridge parts. But now a project by private provider Brightline West is making headway and could give both US passenger trains and Siemens Mobility a powerful boost.
The high-speed train has been in planning since 2008. However, misjudgments, planning errors, mismanagement, financial problems and resistance from interest groups had thrown the project off track. The price calculation of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which is responsible for planning and implementation, rose from 40 to more than 100 billion dollars. Republican politicians in particular are calling for the money to be invested in highways and airports.
The opening of the first sections is possible in 2030, it is now said. Against all odds, California Governor Gavin Newsom released $4.2 billion in June to complete a 276-kilometer section in central California from Merced to Bakersfield. This should help the economically weak region and get 400,000 cars off the Interstates for climate protection. Critics sneer that the “train to nowhere” connecting a few small towns is utterly pointless.
Meanwhile, Brightline West is planning a high-speed train from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, which Marc Buncher, CEO of Siemens Mobility USA, believes could be completed before the first leg of the planned route between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
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The Las Vegas train would be a lifeline for Newsom’s “train to nowhere”: an extension past Bakersfield, for example, could connect it to the Vegas route and thus also to Los Angeles. Then it would only have to be built as far as San Francisco. An idea that would save considerable costs. “I assume that the routes will be compatible,” said Siemens manager Buncher. He expects the project to start within the next twelve months.
Rising interest rates become a problem for Brightline
Brightline West has signed agreements in 2021 to have eight high-speed trains built by Siemens Mobility, probably in Krefeld, Germany. Siemens also hopes to deliver German infrastructure and software for the route technology. Brightline already runs Siemens Velaro trains in Florida.
The company hopes to be able to do more than just deliver trains in California.
(Photo: Bloomberg/Getty Images)
But this project also faces challenges. Due to financing problems, the start was postponed from 2021 to 2022. Now there are rising interest rates, which could make the project more expensive. On the other hand, Brightline may now try to tap into the US government’s new infrastructure fund. It provides $80 billion to renovate rail networks and stations and introduce new routes and technologies.
California Governor Newsom remains optimistic: “With President Joe Biden and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, we have the right partners in Washington.” His successor, Biden, reversed that in 2021 and plans to do so for another $2.5 billion.
Biden supports rail travel
Biden has worked tirelessly to fund the loss-making semi-state-owned Amtrak rail company. According to the US television network CNN, his around 8,000 train rides between his home in Delaware and Washington DC as Senator and Vice President earned him the nickname “Amtrak Joe”.
Recently, the US President personally mediated between unions and freight train operators, averting a strike that would have hit the US economy hard. In addition, Amtrak would have had to cancel long-distance trains because they run on tracks maintained by the freight train operators.
Only recently there was a threat of a strike by the employees.
(Photo: dpa)
Of Biden’s new train program alone, $66 billion is to go to Amtrak. However, company figures show the low relevance of long-distance trains in the USA in particular. In 2019, 4.45 million passengers took a train that crossed more than one state. Due to the pandemic, this number fell to 2.24 million in 2021. For comparison: In Germany there were around 100 million ICE bookings in 2019.
For critics, such figures are proof that Americans do not want long-distance trains. Proponents like Governor Newsom still hope for the much faster high-speed trains. Today, a train from Oakland near San Francisco to Los Angeles takes eleven hours for around 800 kilometers. The journey takes around six hours by car and eight hours by bus. The new train should make it in under three hours.
In addition to a central bus station, the new “Salesforce Tower” in the heart of San Francisco, the tallest building in the western United States, already has a finished subway station for express and local trains. Everything is still bricked up, waiting for the rails. Siemens manager Buncher is convinced that they will come: “We are in the process of changing America.”
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