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Agency Sees Central Valley as High-Speed Rail Facility Site
The California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) said it has developed guidelines for the heavy maintenance facility and other maintenance facilities for the proposed multibillion-dollar rail project.
The guidelines concluded that the central heavy maintenance facility should be located in the Central Valley at a location still to be determined, between Bakersfield and Merced.
The CHSRA said information on the guidelines could be accessed by all local government agencies and other interested parties throughout the region that might have an interest in locating the heavy maintenance facility within their jurisdiction. The guidelines can be accessed on CHSRA's Web site: www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/news/terminalguidelines.pdf.
The agency said the 800-mile high-speed train is envisioned as an electrically powered steel-wheel-on-steel-rail intercity travel system linking the Bay Area, Sacramento and the Central Valley with Los Angeles, Inland Empire, Orange County and San Diego. The hope is the high-speed train system will boost California's economy as well as the Central Valley's by creating nearly 160,000 construction-related jobs to plan, design and build the system with an additional 450,000 permanent jobs statewide coming online once the system is fully built out, CHSRA said in a statement. It added that it will later formally request a statement of interest from local jurisdictions and interested parties about possible sites for the heavy maintenance facility. Those sites for the location of the heavy maintenance facility will be evaluated during the alternatives analysis phase of the project-level environmental review.
For further information: California High-Speed Rail Authority, 516 W. Shaw Ave., No. 200, Fresno, CA 93704-2515 (559) 221-2636 or Cbowen@hsr.ca.gov.
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/268/story/1048413.html
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