California State Rail Plan 2007-08 to 2017-18

2007-08 – 2017-18 California State Rail PlanIn 2000, the CHSRA completed its Business Plan, Building a High-Speed TrainSystem for California. The Business Plan found that a high-speed train system is asmart investment in mobility, an evolutionary step for transportation, and a projectin keeping with California’s standards for environmental quality and economicgrowth. The Business Plan determined that the next project step is to initiate aformal environmental clearance process with the development of a State-levelprogram EIR.To implement the environmental process, the CHSRA prepared a Draft ProgramCalifornia Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Environmental Impact Report(EIR) and a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Tier 1 EnvironmentalImpact Statement (EIS). The CHSRA is the State lead agency for CEQA and theFRA is the Federal lead agency for NEPA. The draft program-level EIR/EIS wasreleased on January 27, 2004. After extensive review, the Final EIR/EIS wasposted on the Federal Register on September 23, 2005. On November 2, 2005, theAuthority certified the Final EIR/EIS.Based on the analysis, the CHSRA and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)have identified the high-speed train system as the preferred system alternative tomeet California’s future intercity travel demand. Service to urban centers wouldbe on shared tracks with other passenger rail services at moderate speeds. Stationswould be in close proximity to most major airports, and there would be stationconnections with major transit hubs in metropolitan areas. The EIR/EIS identifiespreferred alignments, as follows:• Northern Mountain Crossing – a broad corridor containing a number offeasible route options have been identified for further study. The corridor isbounded by Pacheco Pass (SR-152) to the south, Altamont Pass (I-580) to thenorth, BNSF corridor to the east, and Caltrain to the west.• Southern Mountain Crossing – through the Techachapi Mountain Rangebetween Los Angeles and Bakersfield via a crossing through Palmdale and theAntelope Valley.• Bay Area – service on the Peninsula and in the East Bay.• Central Valley – Highway 99 corridor (mostly BNSF alignment).• San Diego – via I-215/ I-15 corridor to downtown.• Orange County – Los Angeles to Orange County via Pacific Surfliner Route.The 2006-07 enacted state budget provided $14.3 million "to begin projectimplementation". The funding supported the preparation of a project financialplan, project management activities, identification of critical rights-of-wayacquisitions and the initiation of detailed project design and related environmentalstudies. However, bond funding for the project must still be authorized by voters.176