Posts Tagged ‘California’
Schwarzenegger Hopes California’s Future High-Speed Railroads Will Rely on the Chinese, Again
On a trade mission to Asia this week, Schwarzenegger said he hopes China will invest in his state both in terms of financing and in bidding to work on the project. California is about $19 billion in the red, so , the governor acknowledged.
Under the federal stimulus plan, California is getting $2.25 billion to start work on a a high-speed rail system that will carry 90 million passengers a year, especially between Los Angeles and San Francisco. California aims to finish it by 2030.
On Monday, Japan offered to loan funds to support the project, . Officials with the state-owned Japan Bank for International Cooperation didn't say how much they would offer, but sizable loans will be needed — the project could cost $40 billion.
The stimulus awarded $8.5 billion to 13 regional high-speed rail projects, and most will require imported technology — though the U.S. leads the world in rail freight, the nation is far behind the rest of the world in high-speed passenger trains.
While flirting with China might not please American manufacturers, it’s a good idea to at least get some Chinese perspective. China’s covers 4,300 miles — the distance from Anchorage to New York by car. And the country plans to by 2020.
Chinese companies also have — they’re building high-speed rail projects in several countries, including Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, according to Marketplace.
Schwarzenegger is also scheduled to view high-speed trains in Japan and South Korea.
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Chinese Government to Build 215-MPH Bullet Trains in California
As it stands now, the deal involves the leasing of Chinese bullet train technology to General Electric. GE claims that 80 percent of the train components would be manufactured in the US, with China providing the technical know how and the other 20 percent of parts. To build the parts, GE may convert a joint GE/Toyota plant in Fremont, California that's currently slated for closure.
In recent years, China has outpaced the US in high-speed rail technology, and has even begun to challenge early adopters like Europe and Japan. China has already built 4,000 miles of high-speed rail at home, and will add another 1,200 miles to its system this year. Like in other rail projects initiated by the China Government, China would foot the bill for a significant portion of the construction.
Naturally, the project is far from a done deal. California is also entertaining offers from Japan, Germany, South Korea, Spain, France and Italy, and China has yet to prove it can maintain its low costs and speed production times in countries with strict labor and environmental protection laws. However, with China also proposing with bullet trains within the next ten years, already building similar bullet train systems in Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, and hoping to build similar high-speed rail routes to Germany, Iran, and the Czech Republic, China is poised to be the world's go-to manufacturer of futuristic trains.
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