The November 4th, 2008, a new era began in America. People elected a black President. But there were an other event this day, which was also really important for change in the State of California. Fifty-two percents of Californian voted in favor of the High Speed Train building in their State (Ortiz). “Story will remember this day, when Californians asked for a new transportation system for the California circulation’s needs of the twentieth century “ said Quentin Kopp, the responsible in charge of the project (Europe1). That is more than needs. As every huge project, the construction of a high-speed train in California will have a lot of positive effect and bad effect, even if in the actual situation, its built is primordial. Indeed, each day there is kilometers of traffic jam. That encouraged the California’s authority to find a solution to relieve the traffic. But on the other hand, the costs, in a period of economic crisis, and the route the train will take can be source of rejection. Highways are full of traffic jam, and airports are getting more and more frequented. Build a substitute of this transportation in California is urgent. At first, the first line built will be Los Angeles-San Francisco. This will generate construction cost of approximately 30 billion dollars. San Francisco is located 432 miles away from Los Angeles, and the trip will take two hours and thirty-eight minutes (State of California). And in the second time, the line will be extended in the North to Sacramento, and in the South to San Diego. Around thirty stations will be built; two of them will be in Los Angeles and San Francisco’s airports. The total cost, including the extended line, will extend forty-five billion of Dollars: ten billion from the State of California, and thirty-five billion from a private and public partnership (State of California). These construction cost include everything concerning the train such as infrastructure, facilities, and systems. The technology it will use will be from the European and Japanese model. Competition just begins between Alstom, the constructor of the “Train à Grande Vitesse “ in France, and Hitachi, the constructor of the Shinkansen in Japan (Amedeo). The certitude is that the train will be capable to go over 220 miles per hours. This could be the Japanese or French train the security will be assured. No accidents are reported in the TGV or the Shinkansen. The authority will expect a hundred million of passenger and generate a billion (State of California). It is huge in a California where car and plane traffic predominate. “Our system in America is old-fashioned. We move at the same speed than 100 years ago” said Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California (Le Moniteur). Indeed, train is very far to be one of the most used ways of transportation in California like plane or car. For example, each year about forty million of people are transited in the San Francisco’s airport, and sixty-four million in Los Angeles (L’Humanité). There is also a huge amount of people which are driving every day in California. These cause not only trouble with transportation, but also with pollution. About the environment, California is known to be involved in, and the HST will not derogate to that. Firstly, compare to the effect the cars’ consummation and the pollution that a plane emits, the HST will have much less impact. It will send out twelve billion pounds of CO2, maybe more depending on the frequentation, and will have less impact (State of California). Moreover, in a crisis economic period, the HST will create about 450,000 jobs for the construction and permanent (BayRail Alliance). One other advantage will be the speed, which will make easier the possibility to travel than it is already. Let’s compare car, plane, and the HST for a trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco. By car, it takes seven hours (taking into consideration traffic jam and stop), and it costs eighty-six dollar. By plane, it takes one hour and it costs 120 dollar plus the time it takes to reach the airport and leave it. With the HST, the trip will take two hours and thirty-eight minutes, cost fifty-five dollar, and save 324 lbs of CO2 (State of California). HST will clearly be a better option. Like every huge project, there are always people against it. Three organizations, Reason Foundation, Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association and Citizens Against Government Waste created a report in which it said that the cost will be much more expensive, almost be doubled, the number of passengers will increase in a first time, but then decrease, no guarantee of security can be assured, and because of the numbers of stops, it will be impossible to reach the speed limit the Government announced (Cox and Vranich). But the main point is that, maybe the High Speed Train will create job and boost the economy, but in an economic crisis period, plus the fact that California is on the verge of bankruptcy, the amount of money is judged too excessive. The route the train will take is also an other debating source. Some cities, such as Palo Alto, are pursuing the High Speed Rail Authority to change the track it will take. They are not really against the project, but want it done “properly” according to Larry Klein, a member of the Palo Alto City Council (San Francisco Examiner). Other people are against the consequence that will have the construction of the route: bridges, leveling, huge labor, and difficulties to move in the cities during the work. For a project of this size, there are always people against it. And this could delay the day it will be operational. The High Speed Rail is a formidable opportunity to improve transportation in California. In a State where highways and airport are saturated, and in which population will double within ten years (Le Figaro), the importance of the train is considerable, especially to be a substitute of plane and cars. The cost are extremely expensive, but are less important that expending highways or airport which would cost twice as much as the construction fees. Added to the fact that it will respect the environment and limit the emission of CO2, boost the economy by creating jobs and improving people’s mobility in the State, the train will undeniably bring positive effect to California even tough there are detractors who reproach reliable defaults but not enough compare to the stake of the project. According to the official website, the train will be available on 2015, 2020 according to le Figaro and 2025 according to the blog. This uncertainty could be the biggest default of the High Speed Train. Competition is big and the train could profit to France if Alstom build it.
Detractors, delayed and that could be his biggest default.