California High Speed Rail Thread

[Busy Bee]

This fucking country is doomed.

[Illithid Dude]

Didn't this guy run on finishing the train?

[k1052]

Uh anybody know what the grade profile of 152 through Pacheco looks like if say Caltrain wanted to use it as a ROW to access the stranded Central Valley segment at Madera?

[lrt's friend]

Wow! A High Speed train not connecting much of anything.

[sopas ej]

Seriously. Bakersfield to Madera. What's the point. I guess if you wanna visit or transfer inmates at a high rate of speed.

[ocman]

Good luck Texas, hope you can succeed where California failed.

[ocman]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Seriously. Bakersfield to Madera. What's the point. I guess if you wanna visit or transfer inmates at a high rate of speed.

“I know that some critics are going to say, ‘Well, that’s a train to nowhere.’ But I think that’s wrong and I think that’s offensive,” Newsom said. “It’s about economic transformation. It’s about unlocking the enormous potential of the valley.”

Because jobless areas linked with other jobless areas apparently creates jobs. Just rhetoric. He’s building his warchest for his single payer healthcare system.

[digitallagasse]

This makes no sense at all. The only section that will be completed will not be viable in any way. You want major transformation these are the types of projects you do. The world thought Japan was crazy when it built its first line of HSR. No one is laughing now and it has been not only successful but transformational as well. For a nation that built the interstate highway system across a large continent we can't even pull off an HSR line in a single state. The rest of the world is leaving us behind.

To everyone that thought this project was a waste of money I ask you this. How much money will it cost to increase capacity of air travel and highways that would bring the same benefit as HSR. That means not only capacity, carbon footprint, ravel time and economic benefit. I will wait...

[ocman]

Maybe we can sell the right of way to Elon Musk.

[k1052]

Scott Wiener is saying via his twitter account the press reports of the project being killed are inaccurate.

So

[BrownTown]

Originally Posted by k1052

Newsom is terminating the project.

Thank God that sanity has finally prevailed. Sad that Billions were already wasted on this boondoggle.

Idiotic to keep spending money on the Central Valley portion though as that will be completely worthless without the ends.

In a perfect world (AKA: not California) we could have used eminent domain to massively reduce costs by not giving into NIMBY demands, but in the regulations hell hole that is California this project was doomed from the start.

[kgbnsf]

If this is a no go, then they really need to focus on improving the Amtrak Coast Starlight line in California, at least from SF (Oakland) to LA, to improve times and minimize congestion. It shouldn't have to take 12.5 hours to go that distance on train. New York's Empire Service only takes 7.5 hours for a similar distance. And that includes an hour of padding for delays.

[kgbnsf]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Seriously. Bakersfield to Madera. What's the point.

I am guessing:

1) To save face, so at least there is still a HSR project
2) Keep the funding already received

[k1052]

Originally Posted by BrownTown

Idiotic to keep spending money on the Central Valley portion though as that will be completely worthless without the ends.

1) They don't want to pay the feds back

2) This could represent a rebooting of the project that would utilize the segment.

[BrownTown]

Originally Posted by kgbnsf

If this is a no go, then they really need to focus on improving the Amtrak Coast Starlight line in California, at least from SF (Oakland) to LA, to improve times and minimize congestion. It shouldn't have to take 12.5 hours to go that distance on train. New York's Empire Service only takes 7.5 hours for a similar distance. And that includes an hour of padding for delays.

But why? There's plenty of plains that fly this route every day.

Use these funds to speed up the LA rail projects that are currently planned out to 2040 and to expand heavy rail in the Bay Area.

Originally Posted by k1052

1) They don't want to pay the feds back

2) This could represent a rebooting of the project that would utilize the segment.

Yeah, I understand the reasons, but they're still kind of dumb. I do think this isn't the death of this project by a long shot though. My suspicion is California is tired of going it alone and is hoping a Democrat gets elected President in 2020 and they can use their huge Congressional contingent to try and get federal taxpayers to fund this project instead of paying for it themselves. I'm sure in their heads they'll be finishing up the existing work right as the new infrastructure bill goes though and they can roll right into the extensions to LA and SF.

[ocman]

Originally Posted by BrownTown

But why? There's plenty of plains that fly this route every day.

Use these funds to speed up the LA rail projects that are currently planned out to 2040 and to expand heavy rail in the Bay Area.

You can’t just take that money and do whatever you want with it. California taxpayers aren’t going to let that money they voted for go to LA’s projects. They didn’t vote to give that money to LA. They voted for HSR. If HSR is cancelled, the funds are cancelled. You can’t divert it elsewhere without breaking the law.

[BrownTown]

Originally Posted by ocman

You can’t just take that money and do whatever you want with it. California taxpayers aren’t going to let that money they voted for go to LA’s projects. They didn’t vote to give that money to LA.

They didn't vote for any of the money in question so they don't really have any leg to stand on here.

[ocman]

Originally Posted by BrownTown

They didn't vote for any of the money in question so they don't really have any leg to stand on here.

They did. When we voted for HSR it was tied with the vote for obligation bonds about $10B for HSR. Another few billion came from the Feds specifically for HSR. None of it we can use for other pet projects.

If you want the state to give billions for LA rail, that’s a completely different issue. Brown wanted to use carbon emission credits to pay for the rest of the system. That can be used for LA rail, but it could also be used for almost anything else. Newsom isn’t going to do that. He’s gearing up for a single payer health care plan that’ll could cost 200B a year.

[BrownTown]

Originally Posted by ocman

They did. When we voted for HSR it was tied with the vote for obligation bonds about $10B for HSR. Another few billion came from the Feds specifically for HSR. None of it we can use for other pet projects.

Right, and those $10 Billion are still going to be spent so all is well. It's the other 100+ Billion that would have been needed that can now be used for other things.

Originally Posted by ocman

If you want the state to give billions for LA rail, that’s a completely different issue. Brown wanted to use carbon emission credits to pay for the rest of the system. That can be used for LA rail, but it could also be used for almost anything else. Newsom isn’t going to do that. He’s gearing up for a single payer health care plan that’ll could cost 200B a year.

Yeah, good luck with that. Unless they put some serious restrictions on that everyone who gets cancer is just going to move to California for free healthcare and the costs will go through the roof.

[Car(e)-Free LA]

Further evidence Villaraigosa should have won. Anyways, I'm skeptical the legislature will go along, and if they do, they could at least switch over to Altamont and terminate at 4th&King/Transbay for just a couple billion more (toll I-5 from Tracy-Bakersfield for funding?)