California, quite deservedly, received the lion's share of federal HSR funding, as announced by Obama following his (truly marvelous) State of the Union address last night. In addition to the $10 billion from Prop 1A, Washington awarded another $2.25 billion to lines between San Francisco and San Jose, Merced and Bakersfield via Fresno, and Los Angeles to Anaheim. These are the major urban segments of the whole line; presumably, more rural segments (such as my site, Los Angeles to Bakersfield via Palmdale and through the Tehachapi Pass), will come quickly after, since I would think that the line would hardly be able to perform until all the major cities are connected.

December was, for the most part, a disaster, and a nasty combination of anxiety and sinusitus kept me from fully presenting my thesis proposal. But now I'm trucking on: I've a (massive) site model to build, masterplanning to start, &c.

This is perhaps the silliest part of my proposal, but maybe the most fun. There are plenty of precedents (here, here, here, here) of fantastical transit maps of Los Angeles, all more comprehensive than mine. Part of my thinking about the site relates to bundling and unbundling multiple modes of transportation–high speed rail, heavy rail (Metrolink), tramway (this), buses, cars, bicycles, and pedestrians. If there's to be a tramway, I propose this, my San Fernando line, running from Sherman Oaks at Ventura/Van Nuys to the Sylmar/San Fernando HSR station through some of the densest parts of the Valley. Most of it could operate in the old Pacific Electric streetcar right-of-ways, as well, since it basically follows the alignment of the old 33 and 84 Red Car lines, as far as I can tell (and, more roughly, the current 734 Metro Rapid service). But the San Fernando Valley isn't Bordeaux, so it's not like I'm holding my breath or anything.