![]() Cities and the authority should identify what the station can bring to the communities it serves, whether or not people ride the train.Cities and the High-Speed Rail Authority should plan with an understanding that early investments will last 50 to 100 years and should support a city’s growth and aspirations in that same timescale. High-speed rail is a long-term urban project.Cities in the Central Valley have the most to gain from concerted placemaking and identity-building efforts, which can help make these cities destinations, rather than places to pass through. And thinking of each city as part of a unified vision for the statewide network can open up new ways to experience the diversity of California. Local placemaking efforts can also help establish a city’s unique identity. The vision of high-speed rail can only be accomplished if we think of the station cities as a set of destinations that function better when connected.Īt the local level, stations and the neighborhoods around them can be great urban places where people choose to spend their time - whether or not they ride the train. When completed, the high-speed rail network will connect eight of the 10 largest cities in California. At the network level, this investment creates fast new connections between places that were not previously connected. High-speed rail creates a network of places at multiple scales that reinforce each other, creating a key opportunity for station cities. “A station is a piece of the city that is welcoming to the traveler.” - Andreas Heym “If high-speed rail arrives and nothing is there, then people will go somewhere else.” - Andreas Heym, Founder, Andreas Heym Planning and Design This article draws out some of the key themes and best practices we learned about, along with the concrete steps station cities and the authority can take to get the most from this generational investment. Over the summer and fall of 2021, SPUR, in partnership with the California High-Speed Rail Authority, produced a series of webinars to help the California High-Speed Rail Authority and station cities on their planning journey for high-speed rail stations and station areas. By directing development in and around neighborhoods in station cities, California high-speed rail can also help stop sprawl and preserve the natural environment and greenfield areas under threat of development. By orienting more growth around these stations, cities in the network can also provide a foundation for how the state grows more sustainably in a world with a warming climate and more frequent, more damaging fires. Stations can be anchors of public life and act as the “front door” to the cities along the route. High-speed rail is more than a fast train. Map courtesy of California High-Speed Rail Authority Residents of Fresno will be about an hour and a half away from both San Francisco and Los Angeles, as opposed to up to three hours away by car. When complete, California’s high-speed rail system will fundamentally change people’s mental map of the state by making more places more accessible. ![]() High-speed rail is currently under construction in the Central Valley. In 2008, California voters agreed to devote approximately $9.95 billion to develop a high-speed rail system that would connect the agricultural communities of the San Joaquin Valley - such as Merced, Fresno, Kings/Tulare and Bakersfield - with the coastal cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles. An electrified train could help address air pollution in a region with some of the worst air quality in the country and create a clean way to travel across the state. A fast connection between the San Joaquin Valley and the coast could create significant economic growth to uplift cities along the route. A majority of California’s voters continue to support high-speed rail and the vision it can help the state achieve. Beginning in the 1970s, California’s leaders started to envision a way to connect the dense, urban coastal areas of the Bay Area and Southern California with the San Joaquin Valley via high-speed rail.
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