[MeganC]

They were originally supposed to build it to connect Los Angeles to the Central Valley but the cost of the tunnels is going to put that off for a very long time. At least this way the train will be useful for people who commute to Silicon Valley for work.

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

Isn’t this the project Nancy Pelosi’s husband is involved in building?

[glorgau]

$64 billion for a commuter rail line!

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

You know, San Jose wasn’t there 5 years ago and there was no Silicon Valley when they were putting this thing together, so it’s perfectly understandable that they never considered the utility of running the train along such a route. Even experts miss this kind of thing.

The best thing is that folks can live in their $1.8 MM homes in Palo Alto and commute to the Central Valley to pick walnuts, tomatos, and apricots.

[Yaelle]

“Pablo, why should we work in the fields when now we could work at McDonalds in San Jose?” Then where will the farmers get their slave labor?

[ksm1]

I’ll bet Texas will complete its high speed rail line, all with private funds, between Dallas and Houston, before California gets anything serious going.

[al baby]

lets bulid a big A$$ aqueduct from the Colombia River to the San Juaquine valley then to So Ca instead

[Two Kids' Dad]

If it was worth doing it would have been worth it to a private company or consortium and wouldn’t have needed to be a ballot measure.

The people who voted for it should have to pay for it all and those of us that voted against it should be forever barred from using it. That seems fair.

[zeestephen]

This means that poor Hispanic farm workers can live in tax subsidized housing in San Jose and still commute to their jobs before sunrise.

[zeestephen]

I actually love the concept of high speed rail.

And to some extent I'm a “cost be damned” advocate.

But the problem with high speed rail is, well, high speeds.

For safety, you need like 3 miles of spacing between trains.

So, you build a $100 billion rail highway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, but at any given time, 98% of the “road” is empty!

[Senator_Blutarski]

In Wisconsin the liberals came unglued when Scott Walker vetoed a bill to accept $800 million in federal funds to build a light rail line between Milwaukee and Madison. Walker made the point that the federal funds only get the project started and the state ends up holding the bag for an unneeded rail line.

Meanwhile, California has jumped into the pool with both feet.

Ironically, the liberals in Wisconsin no longer talk about light rail. They have had the huge California costs thrown in their faces and know it is a no win for them.

[dynachrome]

WillieGreen memorial ping.