Principal Investigators/Researcher

Jin Ouk Choi, Mohamed Kaseko, Hualiang (Harry) Teng, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Project Description

The objective of this study is to determine for the California high speed rail the access charge to the proposed XpressWest. California high speed rail and XpressWest in Nevada are two different high speed rail agencies. It is proposed that XpressWest will connect to California high speed rail at Palmdale of California. The high speed rail trains from Las Vegas of Nevada will run to Palmdale and then take on the California high speed rail to the destinations in California including Los Angeles and San Francisco. XpressWest will not use the California high speed rail for free. This study is to evaluate the access charge to the proposed XpressWest by providing a structure for assessing the incremental costs arising to High-speed Rail in allowing XpressWest to operate on the California high speed rail.

In passenger rail, it is very popular that commuting railroads use freight track for which an access charge will be made by the freight railroad to the commuting railroads to compensate the costs incurred on their infrastructure. These costs include the infrastructure improvements (front end costs), maintenance cost, HSR operator overheads, and the cost due to the lost opportunities such as delays to freight trains. In the case of XpressWest using the California track, to accommodate the trains from Nevada, sidings at stations in California may need to be added, the California HSR infrastructure (track, rolling stock, power, signal and communication) would deteriorate faster, and some trains may have to be delayed (or, through the simulation, the PIs may able to find a schedule that can deliver trains without delays).

It is expected that this study will develop two products: (1) a high speed rail simulation model that can be used by both the California high speed rail and XpressWest, and (2) access charge that can be adopted by these two agencies.