Economic Growth Impacts Of California High-speed Train

Legislative funders of high-speed rail in California were faced with the decision to fund all, part, or none of a proposed high-speed rail link between Los Angeles and San Francisco. An existing contingency plan to build part of the link between San Francisco and the Central Valley was supported by a newly published economic and environmental impact studies.

Two years after the 2005 release of the Tier 1 System-wide Environmental Impact Report (EIR), the California High-Speed Rail Authority released the Tier 2 EIR on the San Francisco Bay Area to Central Valley segment as an independent project. The economic analysis was conducted by Economic Development Research Group and Cambridge Systematics, based on a detailed accounting of expected changes in travel times, costs, reliability and access for train travelers, highway users, and airline travelers.

The analysis for the San Francisco-Central Valley segment was conducted at a detailed spatial level using the TREDIS (Transportation Economic Development Impact System), which was selected for its enhanced capability to estimate net business attraction impacts of enhanced labor, business travel and tourism markets, as well as the more standard economic impacts of time and cost savings.

Bay Area to Central Valley Program EIR/EIS, Economic Growth and Related Impacts, Vol. 1, Ch. 5, California High-Speed Rail Authority, July 2007

Final Report: Economic Growth Effects of Bay Area to Central Valley High Speed Train, by Cambridge Systematics, Economic Development Research Group and Michael Reilly, for the California High-Speed Rail Authority July 2007