CALPIRG Testimony in Support of High Speed Rail

CALPIRG Testimony in Support of High Speed Rail
Senate Budget Subcommittee #4
Emily Rusch, CALPIRG Advocate
May 10, 2007

California cannot afford not to plan for our growing travel needs.  

California’s population is growing from 37 million people today to more than 50 million in 2030 and 58.7 million people in 2040. California’s population will increase 59 percent between 2000 and 2040.

Not only will more people live in California, but we are predicted to increase travel even more rapidly. Intercity travel is expected to increase by 63 percent by 2025, resulting in more traffic on our highways, at our airports, and on existing trains. Between 2000 and 2020:
-Traffic on I-5 between San Diego and Los Angeles will increase 64 percent
-Traffic on I-5 between Los Angeles and Bakersfield will increase 56 percent
-Traffic on 99 in Central Valley at Bakersfield will increase 65 percent
-Traffic on I-580 between Bay Area and Stockton will increase 60 percent

Intercity air travel between Southern California and Bay area is predicted to almost double between 1992 and 2010. Some airports like LAX will likely have to reduce regional service in the future to accommodate growing long-distance air travel, making short distance air travel even more cumbersome than it is today. As for train service, Amtrak is expecting to triple their ridership by 12 million riders by 2020. However, even Amtrak’s modernization plan will only reduce travel time between SF and LA to 8 hours and 45 minutes, not fast enough to be appealing to most travelers.

The benefits of high speed rail couldn’t be clearer – for public health and the environment, for commuters, and for taxpayers.   

High speed rail would use less oil than the alternatives. High speed rail would consume an estimated 19.1 million barrels of oil, versus 24.3 to 24.5 million barrels of oil consumed under alternative travel scenarios – a 20 percent decrease in oil used for travel.  

The high speed rail would benefit public health and the environment because it would emit less unhealthy air and global warming pollution. Simple extrapolations show that by 2030 there could be more than 8.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide offset by high speed rail annually—a huge proportion of the 18 million metric tons of emissions reductions that Governor Schwarzenegger’s Climate Action Team identified that we need to make through smart growth and transportation improvements to reach goals in AB 32. These reductions would be the equivalent of getting 1.9 million cars off the road annually.  Pollution reductions would be even higher if the 5.9 billion KwH of electricity used by the train system was supplied by clean energy.  

High speed rail would benefit commuters because there would be 34 million fewer long-distance automobile passengers, thus reducing growth in traffic congestion. In addition, High speed rail would encourage smart growth and transit-oriented development because done right, high speed rail will increase the use of local public transit to get to and from high speed rail stations.

High speed rail would benefit taxpayers because while the price tag appears daunting at the outset, it would in fact cost less to build than the airport expansions and highway expansions California would need without it.    

High speed rail would benefit consumers because it would be either faster and/or cheaper than other travel alternatives. Costs to consumers would be competitive with automobile and cheaper than air travel, and travel would definitely faster than automobile travel (just over two hours between the Bay Area and Los Angeles!). The High Speed Rail Authority predicts overall savings of 8 percent to 44 percent in passenger costs compared to no project alternative, depending on the price of oil, among other factors. As a result of the convenience, reliability and speed for travelers, every other high speed rail system in the world in operation today runs a profit.

We cannot continue to delay the construction of high speed rail for California. CALPIRG urges the Legislature to allocate enough funding for the High Speed Rail Authority to continue their planning processes and buy the necessary rights of way to pave the way for construction.