Yes, I know this is a year old. However: Palmdale<->LAUS does make sense one the California High Speed Railroad is built. Current Metrolink time is 2 hours flat for about 67 miles. Calif HSR time and distance both will be much less. (Maybe about 30 minutes? I do not really know.) The HSR will go through mountains that the Metrolink track goes around, and will be running with near triple the current maximum speed of Metrolink.
I know they bandy about 220 mph for the Cali system, but what's the real world top speed, excluding a few small segments for bragging rights?
The projected time on the CHSRA website for LA Union Station to Palmdale is 27 minutes, but this is with 2 stops. Of course, until there are detailed engineering plans with the exact route selected, the trip time numbers are ballpark at best other than the LAUS to SF requirement.
But, as for how much of the system will be 220 mph speeds, probably a fair amount. The technical specification documents being drawn up, for those who want to read some of them, can be found at
http://www.calhsr.com/resources/technical-docs/. Several of the tunnel documents are interesting because they cover how big the tunnel has to be to keep the air pressure changes to an acceptable level for a 220 mph and even a 250 mph train. The answer is pretty big, BTW. Quoting: "Using the largest train (the Shinkansen Bi-level) for the critical case of tunnel lengths of 0.6 miles to 2.2 miles gives the following results: An increase in speed from 205 mph to 220 mph requires an increase of 1’-6” in tunnel diameter, from 28’-0” to 29’-6” An increase in speed from 220 mph to 250 mph requires an increase of 3’ 6” feet in tunnel diameter, from 29’-6” to 33-0” feet". So scratch the idea of 250 mph trains through the tunnels because of cost, if that was even on the table.
The max speeds from San Francisco to San Jose will be 125 mph. The speeds from Burbank to Anaheim will also presumably be way under 220 mph. But from Sylar to Palmdale to Fresno to San Jose? The CA HSR system will be all new track, with new tunnels and bridges. There will be compromises made between costs and speed, but the advantage of building a new system from scratch means that they should be able to achieve close to max speeds through the mountains, desert, and Central valley. The Northeast corridor did not and does not have that luxury - well, not without spending a huge amount of money.
The requirement is 2:40 from LA Union Station to San Francisco. By putting it down as a hard number, it will give the project managers and engineers leverage to stop people from putting in too many slow the system down compromises.
