I want to talk about California HSR, the infamous train project to eventually connect LA to the Bay Area in just 3 hours, but particularly how the project is unprecedented in a way that we don’t really expect here in the US. It’s not the high speeds or even the cheap tickets, it’s a concept known as Transit Oriented Development. It’s the train stations themselves and the surrounding pedestrian-first environment that the high speed rail project is really focusing on.

Transit Oriented Developments, or TODs, as they’re called are high-density, mixed-use areas centered around transit stations that simultaneously create economic vitality and serve as a destination, a place people want to be. It combines efficient transportation, like a high-speed rail, with a range of human-scaled amenities in close proximity like shops, plazas, offices, and housing, while promoting a safe and welcoming urban environment.

Good examples of TODs are world-renowned, such as Hauptbahnhof Main Station in Germany or Kyoto Station in Japan.

And soon enough, Fresno California. That’s right, the Fresno Station District Master Plan is a huge undertaking to quote “re-regionalize Downtown Fresno as the primary urban destination for the region” – or in other words, make it a TOD. We’re talking civic parks, urban hotels, aesthetic architecture, and an intermodal transit center, all within just a 5 minute walk of the station. But most importantly, finally giving the historic downtown Fulton District and Chinatown the love they deserve, which harkens back to decades of economic decline from freeway construction and the suburban expansion we see today.

Which leads to, what I think is the most refreshing aspect of this whole TOD focus which is how it differs so much from our current train stations here in the US. Believe it or not, Amtrak already operates a similar route as the high speed rail corridor through the San Joaquin valley, and it runs 5 times a day. But the train isn’t fast, and more importantly some of the stations are nowhere close to their respective downtowns. Take, for example, Modesto Station which is located on the outskirts of town and is surrounded by nothing other than a parking lot. And this is hardly unique to Modesto. “Park & Rides”, as they’re called, are characteristic of so many transit systems in the US and are really just a hallmark of poor land use in our country. I actually took the San Joaquin train recently to get to the central valley and was soon walking along the side of a huge road to get somewhere which was super unpleasant.

If a train station only really accommodates people who can drive a car to it, then not only is that grossly inequitable, but it assumes those same people wouldn’t just drive all the way to their destination on a better network of roads and highways. Which is exactly what they do, because it’s faster, cheaper, and more predictable. And for long distance travel, like between San Francisco and Los Angeles, a train station located far from downtown and surrounded by parking might as well be an airport.

And that’s why forming TODs with train stations and downtowns is so important, because it ensures ridership from those who will use it and really capitalizes on what makes trains advantageous in the first place. The City of Fresno has expressed great interest in reining in some of the car dependent sprawl that sort of makes you wonder where downtown Fresno really is.

Even the San Francisco end of the HSR project is working hard to extend the Caltrain corridor just 2 more miles into the heart of downtown to reach Salesforce where it can finally connect to the rest of the Bay Area transit system, which by itself accounts for about half of the state’s transit ridership, and it would be a huge oversight to miss out on that.

So anyway, I’m looking forward to the future of the high speed rail and all of its cool new TODs.