High Speed Trains

The Acela Express, Amtrak's high-speed train, was shut down indefinitely Friday because of brake problems, leaving thousands of travelers scrambling for other transportation. Amtrak pressed slower trains into use in the Northeast corridor between Washington, New York and Boston. Acela service will be suspended at least through Wednesday because of cracks in disc brakes, said Amtrak's chief operating officer, Bill Crosbie.

Earthquake scientists have received about $5 million to develop an earthquake early warning system for Southern California -- enough to build the network but not enough to operate it. The money, announced Friday, has enabled scientists to already begin purchasing 100 new sensor stations that will be deployed throughout Southern California to complete the seismic sensor network. But without funds to operate it, it's like buying a car but not having enough money for gasoline, officials said.

So-called Baby Bullet trains that can make the trip from San Jose to San Francisco in less than an hour at speeds reaching 75 mph are expected to start transporting commuters in June. Caltrain released the schedules Thursday. The trains will travel on Caltrain's tracks, stopping at just four stations that were chosen because they have the highest ridership on the Bay-Area system, a Caltrain spokeswoman said. Current trains reach a maximum of about 60 mph between some stations, she said.

State high-speed rail officials acknowledged Thursday that they changed their rules for selecting a builder for the bullet train's first phase in the Central Valley, a shift that subsequently made it possible for a consortium led by Sylmar-based Tutor Perini to be ranked as the top candidate despite receiving the lowest technical rating. The California High-Speed Rail Authority announced last week that the Tutor Perini-Zachry-Parsons joint venture was the top-rated contender among five bidders seeking to build the initial 29 miles of track between Madera and Fresno.

Gov. Pete Wilson has signed an Orange County lawmaker's bill extending the life of a commission promoting a privately built and operated super-speed train between Southern California and Las Vegas. The legislation by Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) will allow the California/Nevada Super-Speed Train Commission to continue pushing the project until Jan. 1, 1996. The Legislature formed the commission in 1988, but its original charter lapsed in July.

Toru Fukushima still recalls the pride he felt when, as a high school student during the golden autumn of 1964, Tokyo was host to the Olympics and the soon-to-be-famous bullet train made its first high-speed runs. "The bullet train and the Olympic Games together were symbols of Japan's economic growth," said Fukushima, now a planning official with Central Japan Railway Co. "I sent my friends New Year's cards with pictures of the bullet train.

An ambitious, long-term plan to develop high-speed train routes linking major Southwest cities--including Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Diego, San Francisco, Phoenix and Las Vegas--will be considered by a special two-state commission next week. "We envision an eventual network of trains operating up to 300 (m.p.h.) among the major centers of the Pacific Southwest region," California Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) told a U.S. Senate subcommittee Tuesday.

High-speed trains could move passengers quickly along heavily traveled routes between major American cities, without the lengthy delays that occur today in both air and highway travel and with less environmental damage, according to a report released Wednesday. But such systems are likely to be so costly that government subsidies would be needed to get them up and running.

A partnership of government and industry in southern Nevada plans to spend $1.3 billion to build the nation's first super-fast train. Where do they want to put it after more than two decades of effort? From Las Vegas to Primm, a three-hotel sideshow on the Nevada-California border. It's best known for an outlet mall, the giant Desperado roller coaster and a bullet-riddled 1934 Ford that carried the infamous Bonnie and Clyde to their deaths. Critics say the proposal is a train to nowhere.

High-speed trains, long touted as a solution to some of America's transportation problems, could become a reality in the next few years if a solution can be found for one problem--how to pay for these multibillion-dollar systems. "The technology is essentially in place," John H. Riley, federal railroad administrator, told the Fourth International Convention on High-Speed Rail here recently. "The issue now is financial." The Las Vegas setting was appropriate.

VALENCIA, Spain - A 2009 snapshot shows the president of Spain's Valencia region cruising along in a $200,000 Ferrari. It was Francisco Camps' victory lap, after presiding over the Formula One European Grand Prix and the America's Cup yacht race. Valencia was dubbed the "California of Spain" for its gorgeous coastline, modern architecture and mind-set. Construction of upscale homes and resorts was booming. Four years later, that Ferrari photo has become an embarrassing reminder of Valencia's heady growth years - and how much has gone awry since then.

HIKING Workshop Experts will discuss favorite local desert hikes and offer tips on gear and clothing. When, where: 7 p.m. Wednesday at the REI store in Rancho Cucamonga, 12218 Foothill Blvd. Admission, info: Free. (909) 646-8360. JOSHUA TREE Field class Learn about animal behavior and how to identify their tracks in this activity for families. When, where: 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday at the Joshua Tree Visitor Center, 6554 Park Blvd., Joshua Tree.

One political party absolutely loves the idea of the modern rail system, both as a boon for business and commerce, and, incidentally, perhaps as a bit of a boondoggle for its political buddies. Guess which party. It's the GOP, 150 years ago. The rail system I'm talking about is the railroad to the Pacific. It was a very wide plank in the Republican Party platform in 1856 and 1860, and a dream of Abraham Lincoln's that he never lived to see realized. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Bullet train blues Now it's the Democrats in California - and not even all of them -- who want high-speed rail, and barely enough of them in the Legislature just cast the votes to make it happen.

After considering a half-dozen teams of architects and engineers led by some of the biggest names in the profession -- Renzo Piano and Norman Foster among them -- the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is poised to hire a group led by L.A.'s Gruen Associates and London's Grimshaw Architects to produce a new master plan for Union Station. Metro purchased the 1939 landmark and about 40 acres surrounding it last year. In April, the agency, looking ahead to the day when the station might welcome high-speed trains from San Francisco, asked the six competing teams to produce "vision boards" imagining the site in 2050.

A series of concessions over the last year to quiet opposition to the California bullet train has created a potentially lethal problem: the revised blueprint for the system may violate requirements locked into state law when voters approved funding for the project in 2008. The Legislature packed the law with an unusual number of conditions intended to reassure voters, protect the project from later political compromises and ensure that it would not end up a bankrupted white elephant.

As the price tag for California's bullet train has soared to nearly $100 billion, a central argument for forging ahead with the controversial project is an even loftier figure: the $171 billion that promoters recently estimated will be needed for new roads and airports if no high-speed rail is built. Without a fast-rail network, they warn, the state would have to add 2,300 miles of highway and roughly the equivalent of another Los Angeles International Airport to handle a projected surge in future travel.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has selected California among five U.S. regions as rail corridors in a project aimed at assessing the feasibility of high-speed intercity train travel, state transportation officials said Friday. Transportation Secretary Andrew H. Card Jr. is scheduled to announce the state's selection Monday at the Santa Fe Railway terminal in San Diego, said a Caltrans official who asked not to be identified. Card will present state officials with a $1.

Rockwell International Corp. said Thursday that two of its units have signed separate contracts to help other companies build high-speed trains for Amtrak and to develop navigation and avionics systems for the world's aviation industry. Rockwell's Railroad Electronics division agreed to be a subcontractor in one of several bids to build high-speed trains for Amtrak. It would supply complete electronic systems for power units built by Siemens Transportation Systems Inc. in New York.

Lure of the rails Re "Keep the bullet train on track," Editorial, Jan. 7 Should California continue its high-speed rail project? Yes. But should we get locked into the current plan by the California High-Speed Rail Authority? No. Most people favor, in principle, building a bullet train system, even many who object to the cost and poor design. So the real question is why we're locked into such an unrealistic plan. It is apparent the current plan to start in the Central Valley is a political compromise, not a doable business plan able to attract private investment.