Quote:
Originally Posted by CaliNative
Won't be as fast as advertised. Won't go where they promised it would for decades (first segment in Fresno--won't reach L.A. & S.D. for many many years, if ever). Will cost far more than promised. A total boondoggle.
Use the money instead for faster and cheaper local & interurban rail transit and road improvements in L.A., S.F., San Diego and other cities, and for water projects like ocean desal. and more storage. These things would improve the lives of the people more than a "bullet train" that won't move all that fast. The jets & AMTRAK & improved interurban rail transit & cars will get us to L.A. & S.F. & S.D just fine, and maybe Elon Musk's maglev or pnuematic train eventually.
The "bullet train" is a joke & will saddle the taxpayers with $100 billion in bond debt. Faster & more complete rail transit systems in L.A., S.D., S.F. & Sacramento areas are more important than the bullet train, which can't be built as promised. They don't even know how to get it across the mountains north of L.A.--a tunnel would be enormously expensive, and there is the pesky San Andreas.
Scrap the Choo Choo Jerry! Use the money saved to complete transit systems in L.A., S.F., San Diego & Sacramento metro areas instead, and to drought-proof our water system, and perhaps house the homeless. That money would be better spent and would help people & our economy more.
|
The only real way to drought proof California is to move it to the tropics, away from a desert and to a tropical forest. Helping house poor people will not help the economy more than providing transit.
And for what and how much the state should ffinance projects, that's always going to be a political toss up. Local governements, cities, counties, regions, should help finance local transit, the state has no one to help fund state transit programs but itself, and whatever the federal programs assist.
The California High Speed Rail project isn't the result of the governor's approval alone, but the state legislature's approval, and the approval of a state wide referendum.
Therefore, it is not a boondoggle of just one man, it's a populist program of future transit for the state and for the people.
I will agree that much money would probably be spent better on local transit projects. But that option wasn't presented to the people in the referendum. So it is up to local transit agencies to use the HSR infrastructure as best as they can.