Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
The Forde Files No 91
Shown on this chart, two possible alignments for the High Speed Rail track on the east side of Tehachapi Pass. One roughly follows Hwy. 58 down the canyon to Mojave; the other goes farther west partially through wind farms. All proposals for alignment on the 85-mile Bakersfield to Palmdale segment will be studied. Source: HSR Authority
High Speed Rail Authority Southern California Regional Director Michelle Boehm, briefing the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council March 4 on the progress of the $68 billion project, indicated that the exact route through the Tehachapi Mountains has yet to be settled. Two possible High Speed Rail (HSR) routes on the east side of Tehachapi Summit are under consideration (see map). On the west side, the route will negotiate the narrow, steep ascent that the Southern Pacific conquered in 1876. The final alignments for the Bakersfield-to-Palmdale segment await environmental studies and analyses of the engineering challenges.
In the California High Speed Rail Blog – a lively free-for-all that reflects the complexity of the routing process –Clem Tiller wrote: "The Tehachapi Mountain crossing will surely be the most spectacular, complex and expensive section of California's nascent high-speed rail backbone."
