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[CNJRoss]

Los Angeles Times, 12/13:

 

Bullet train's eventual link to L.A. rail system far from clear-cut

 

As California's bullet train officials begin to lay plans for the system's Los Angeles segment, a major technical issue is coming under close scrutiny: incompatibility between the sleek, high-speed electric trains and the region's older, diesel-powered commuter rail network.

 

The state's plan for initial passenger service calls for high-speed trains to shuttle between Merced and Burbank by 2022, a first leg of a $68-billion line that eventually is expected to link Los Angeles and San Francisco.

 

Under the current design, Los Angeles-bound passengers pulling into Burbank, at least in the early years of operation, would have to transfer to a diesel-powered commuter train on another platform for the final 13-mile trip to downtown's Union Station.

 

Continue here.

[CNJRoss]

Los Angeles Times, 12/18:

Op-Ed

California's bullet train: We owe it to our grandchildren to get this right

 

by Ted Rall

 

No one likes mass transit more than me, and trains are my favorite form of it.

 

They're good for the environment, they are fun to ride, and you zip right past all the planet-killing motorists sitting in traffic. But urban planners often fall short when it comes to making train systems as useful as they could be, which sets the stage for critics who call every idea that doesn't involve more cars a boondoggle.

 

Here in Los Angeles, getting Metro to LAX seems like job one, but not something we are likely to see in our lifetimes. In New York, direct train connections between LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International airports remain as elusive as a World Series win by the Chicago Cubs. Idiotic worries about terrorism added a long walk from BART train stations at San Francisco International Airport to the terminals.

 

Gov. Jerry Brown, who is nothing if not farsighted, is working hard to bring high-speed rail to California, albeit in budget-friendly truncated form, from the Central Valley to L.A. first.

 

Well, not exactly to L.A.

 

First it goes to Burbank.

 

 

Ted Rall is an editorial cartoonist whose work is featured weekly in the Los Angeles Times. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1996 and twice won the RFK Journalism Award, in 1995 and 2000.

 

Rall's opinion w/editorial cartoon continues here.