High-Speed Rail to Be Discussed : Transportation: Caltrans is studying the feasibility of linking Los Angeles and Bakersfield.

Caltrans will hold two workshops next week on proposed high-speed rail service between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, the last in a series of four public meetings on the project.

Caltrans is in the middle of a one-year feasibility study to “examine alternative routes, train technologies, costs and environmental issues” to link Bakersfield and Los Angeles via high-speed rail.

“The study will not make recommendations as to proposed routes, stations or technologies,” according to the California Department of Transportation. “However, it will evaluate the financial, engineering and environmental issues related to each of the possible alternatives.”

The idea of a high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and Bakersfield has been discussed for years, and will be reviewed again at the two upcoming workshops in Burbank and Palmdale.

Mark Archuleta, a Caltrans senior transportation engineer, said this study--called the Los Angeles-Bakersfield High Speed Ground Transportation Feasibility Study--will cost between $4 million and $4.5 million and includes preliminary engineering and mapping.

Although it is limited to the Bakersfield-Los Angeles segment, the study is really part of a much larger evaluation of a high-speed rail system that would link Northern and Southern California, he said.

After its October completion, the study will be given to the California Intercity High Speed Ground Transportation Commission.

“They’ll use the results of our study to incorporate into the overall study,” Archuleta said. “They will be looking at statewide systems, ridership, market demand, economic impacts (and) financing options.”

Although the state commission will determine the route for the Bakersfield-Los Angeles segment, Antelope Valley officials are pushing their region as the most desirable.

“This is the Antelope Valley’s opportunity to send a strong message of support for an Antelope Valley (high-speed rail) alignment,” wrote Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford in a three-page letter to residents.

Two major alignments have been identified for the Los Angeles-Bakersfield segment, said Archuleta. Both routes would follow the same initial path from Union Station in downtown Los Angeles to the Saugus area of the Santa Clarita Valley.

One possible route would continue along the Interstate 5 corridor through the Grapevine and along California 99 to Bakersfield. The other alignment would run through the Antelope Valley, generally following the Antelope Valley Freeway and then the California Aqueduct through the Tehachapi Mountains to Bakersfield. A number of variations of those two routes are being considered.

“The Antelope Valley is the center of growth between Bakersfield and Los Angeles,” Ledford wrote. “Because of its location, growth and future role in California’s economic prosperity, the Antelope Valley is the natural link for (high-speed rail) between Bakersfield and Los Angeles.”

It may be some time before it is known if the lobbying pays off. The state commission is not expected to complete its study until late 1995, Archuleta said. Construction of a high-speed rail system is not expected to begin until the year 2000.

The first workshop is scheduled in Burbank for 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Burbank Library, 110 N. Glenoaks Blvd.

The Antelope Valley workshop will be held from 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Palmdale Cultural Center, 704 E. Palmdale Blvd.