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April 1 deadline looms for California high speed rail
This is similar to watching Shakespear’s “Romeo & Juliet” where one knows the ending but shouts to Romeo ‘don’t!’ The only difference is that the play was tragic, this play absurd and in the end built, up, and running. As in R&J plenty of blame to spread around.
What a mess! The congressman’s bill is largely pointless since there is little hope that the Senate would pass it or the President would sign it.
And for those who complain that their tax dollars are paying for HSR… write your congressman and demand that the Congress defund Amtrak, the FAA, and the Highway Trust Fund and thus devolve all transport planning and financing to the states and private sector.
You know… like in Canada the land of high airfares and no interstates… or high-speed rail!
It will mean higher transport costs and less service to rural America, a big hardship on what will literally become 'fly over country" but but at least those people won’t have to worry about “their” money being spent on things they don’t like in urban America from light rail to bike paths to 20-lane “freeways”.
I was not always so down on the concept of high speed rail. If you can find a copy of “Modern Railways Special: TGV” by Brian Perrin, you’ll read about a transportation project as opposed to a political boondoggle. I seem to recall that CHSRA rejected advice from SNCF. Had they listened to the French, California’s project might not be facing the problems it has now. If you can find this publication, it’s worth a read.
But the California project is run by a bunch of political hacks who don’t care about transportation. Instead they want to start construction somewhere, anywhere, so that they can enrich their cronies. This project is not what the voters were promised when they approved the bonds in 2008. Even former supporters like Quentin Kopp oppose the project in its present form.
This situation as well as so many others of a like kind in this political and economic climate fall into two reactions: either a full stop or full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes.
The fact that neither approach addresses the issues that these projects bring up says a great deal about what a mess we are in.
Agreed, Mr. Duensing.
From where I sit (Los Angeles bye the way) the current high speed rail plan is flawed in many ways. But it is also a very much needed and, if built will become an essential part of California’s transportation structure. Like BART, or the Red Line subway here in LA, it will cost waaaay too much, have construction problems, delays, teething problems and all the rest. But, if actually built, it will eventually serve its purpose well.
Now, as for whether it gets built. I fully believe that Jerry Brown can get construction started. If he manages to do so sooner rather than later, and if he is reelected (very likely), enough just might get built to make completing it a better option than stopping.
Still, I wish they would figure out a way to more closely follow I-5 through Tejon Pass rather than dogleg through Palmdale. As for Altamont verses Pacheco pass, it’s hard to say. Serving San Jose directly is a huge plus. Backtracking from San Francisco to serve Sacramento is a huge minus. But don’t think major route changes are in the cards. It will go as is or not at all.
One should remember San Diego’s first line to San Ysidro. It was the first on the areas light rail. Built under budget opened ahead of schedule.
Excellent concept. Why should the other 49 states pay for something of no benefit to them, in order to subsidize a socialist state that is continuously broke? If the Peoples Republic Of California wants so called high speed rail, then let Moonbeam and the PRC tax the socialists within the PRC. If the PRC had not wasted its resources on grand welfare and social schemes over the past 30 years, it would have the resources to build a railroad from nowhere, to nowhere, via nowhere. Plus it would have the resources to maintain the existing transportation infrastructure.
Hopefully they can speed the project up
We should abandon passenger rail Altogether and just let the airlines gouge and abuse the public all the more with government air traffic controllers and federally subsidized airports. That’s not socialism, is it ?
The best part is that after it is built it will still be quicker to drive.
If the government did defund ALL transportation, the cost of driving and flying would rise dramatically and Amtrak might be able to raise fares enough to operate without a subsidy. Maybe private railroads would run profitable passenger trains again and companies could build high speed railroads as profitable business ventures. But as long as highway and air travel are heavily subsidized, I will continue to support passenger rail where it makes sense.
The opponents all seem to have hidden agendas, and are trying to kill it through foot dragging. Some of them are hoping that the funds will be diverted to their own projects. I am confident that work on the first section will commence this year and it will end all the obstructionism from republicans.
I’ve seen no plans for high speed autoracks. I think somebody missed something in the planning.
William Hays, so why I’m I funding interstates in Montana? Be careful what you wish for as I think a fair and reasonable approach to transportation funding in this country is to toll all the interstates nationwide and do away with FAA. You can start with a toll collection every 50 or 100 miles and that toll can only go towards to that stretch of freeway. I grew up in Minnesota, went to engineering school in North Dakota as well as lived and paid tolls in the Chicago and San Fran Bay area. Rural freeways are truly the biggest form of subsidized transportation their is by a long shot, close second is rural air service to communities in the Dakotas, Montana and so forth.
Will a pair of ‘Berkenstocks’ make the 400-mile trek from 'Frisco (I say that, 'cause I know the SF loons hate it) to LA? I really don’t care. It won’t help my ‘commute’ in Montana.
Didn’t you hear that the so called “Peoples’ Republic of California” now has a budget surplus? get your facts straight before you shoot off your mouth, TROLL!
Just like the Keystone XL pipeline, this will never get built !
The longer they wait to start the more it will cost. Lets get our heads out of our collective ASSES and get this done. Washington get the HELL out of the way.
The east side of the bay bridge will cost about 6 billion for 3 miles . A real bargain I guess for all us California people. They say trains are to expensive to build at current costs.