The future California bullet train’s passage from Burbank to Los Angeles would follow an existing 14-mile rail corridor, cross 22 roads, traverse the Los Angeles River, run through dozens of businesses and hit people across economic and racial segments, a draft environmental study found.
The Los Angeles segment would create two electrified high-speed rail tracks and two conventional tracks for diesel trains from an underground platform in Burbank to Los Angeles’ historic Union Station at an estimated cost of $3.6 billion, according to the report, which was released late Thursday afternoon by the California High-Speed Rail Authority.
Exactly when the future route might be built is unknown because the state lacks the funds to build most of the system from San Francisco to Los Angeles. But under a federal grant, the state must complete all of the environmental impact statements and reports for various segments by 2022, disclosing the exact routes, economic effects and social jolts that would occur at some future date.
The state is currently pursuing a plan to build a 171-mile bullet train starter system from Bakersfield to Merced in the Central Valley at a cost of $20.4 billion, which will consume all of its funds through 2030.
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