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Post from timpdx on SSP with photos of most of the major projects currently under construction in downtown LA. Seeing it all together like this its kind of insane.
I know it's hot today but DTLA is on fire with all the new construction. And I love how Broadway's old historic bldgs are finally being renovated after decades of being empty and just rotting away.
I know that "_____ 's High Line" gets thrown around a lot for various cities, but this project actually looks like it will be DC's unique take on the High Line.
Washington DC ---> Baltimore High Speed Rail (Maglev "electrical magnetic levitation" Technology)
Los Angeles ---> Las Vegas Higher Speed Rail (Express Service)
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Washington DC-to-Baltimore maglev high speed rail:
Maglev is a method of propulsion that moves vehicles with magnets rather than wheels, axles and bearings. The sleek, bullet-like trains seem to glide on a cushion of air.
Hogan was joined on the trip by Wayne Rogers, chief executive of Baltimore-Washington Rapid Rail LLC, which has been promoting the local phase of what it hopes will be an eventual Northeast maglev line. Clark said Rogers, a former executive director of the Maryland Democratic Party, paid his own way on the trip.
Nazih Haddad, executive vice president of the Rapid Rail company, said his company would bear all of the operating costs once the line was running. He said the construction costs would be split between the Japanese government, the Central Japan Railway and the U.S. government, with no need for a state contribution.
While maglev's speed — more than twice that of Amtrak's high-speed Acela trains — has been the technology's selling point, the enormous cost of building a Washington-New York line has been the main obstacle. Many proponents of high-speed rail contend conventional technology would be more feasible.
Andy Kunz, president of the U.S. High Speed Rail Association, said it would be more practical and less costly to go with the type of "wheels on steel" technology in use for decades in Japan, China and France. He said such technology has reached speeds as high as 378 mph and most of it could be built within the existing railroad right of way, where maglev could not.
"The problem with maglev is that its still an experimental technology," he said. "It's not in widespread use across the world."
Haddad estimated the cost of the 40-mile line from Washington to Baltimore at $10 billion.
That price tag is nearly twice the combined cost of Baltimore's Red Line or the Washington suburban Purple Line — light rail projects that Hogan called too expensive when he was running for governor. The fate of the two mass transit projects is on hold until Hogan decides whether to proceed.
Quote:
Greater Los Angeles-to-Greater Las Vegas higher speed rail
China has signed its first high-speed railway contract in the US, days ahead of President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington D.C. A consortium led by state-owned China Railway Group and US company XpressWest will set up a joint venture to build a 370-kilometer (230-mile) high-speed line linking Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
China’s leading group on financial and economic affairs announced the deal at a press conference on Thursday (Sept. 17), and said construction will begin next September. The project comes after four years of negotiation and will be supported by $100 million in initial capital, though the source of that capital was not specified, nor was the project’s expected cost and competition date. But 21st Century Business Herald and other Chinese papers reported the project will cost $12.7 billion and take three years.
The Las Vegas-Los Angeles project will bring new technology, manufacturing and construction jobs to the region, a Chinese official said at the press conference, but did not provide more specifics. XpressWest’s website said it plans a high-speed rail project to link Victorville, CA, outside of Los Angeles, with Las Vegas in just 80 minutes.
About one-quarter of Las Vegas’s 41 million visitors in 2014 came from Southern California, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, many via a several hour highway drive.
XpressWest is a private company by a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino developer, while China Railway International USA, is owned by a consortium made up of subsidiaries from Chinese state firms including China Railway Group and China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC Corp).
The deal is the latest example of China’s high-speed rail initiative overseas. CRRC Corp, merged from two Chinese state train makers in June, was created to become more competitive in selling its high-speed rail to the rest of the world.
Kind of disgusting that DC would put itself in getting a HSR to somewhere before NYC (to somewhere) but whatever if it ultimately gets HSR at least between DC and NYC. Congrats to the west coast. I wouldn't be surprised if it takes the west coast completely out showing the east coast before the east coast can mobilize.
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