[alaskanfan]

They spend money on crap like this and wonder why they have budget problems. How do you spell Amtrak.

[edcoil]

Since the law has not allowed us to build a power plant in 30 years - how we suppose to power this high speed rail system?

[paul51]

Now, California must connect our major metropolitan cities with an economically viable, environmentally friendly, sustainable high-speed rail system.

I doubt it will be any of those

[Uncle Miltie]

What is the cost per rider for a decade given:

(Capital Costs +
Eminent Domain Costs (properly paid)+
Operating Costs)
/ Riders for 10 Years

?

[mnehring]

High Speed Rail- The Obamacare of transportation.

[wita]

Quentin Kopp is a retired judge and a member of the High Speed Rail Authority.

Of course he is! He and the Christmas goose have a lot in common.

[qwertypie]

I was obliged to ride the Portland metro light rail last year. I was forced to ride with the nosering and tattoo crowd, people that I would never let ride in my car. Never again if I can help it.

Airlines are bad enough. But public rail transportation is for losers.

[wildbill]

If they build it I hope they use the interior vally instead of the scenic coastal route. More quakes and fire, landslide, damage possible and terrain is friendlier (flatter) in the valley I think.

Maybe some Californians will comment.

[Da Coyote]

“Now, California must connect our major metropolitan cities with an economically viable, environmentally friendly, sustainable high-speed rail system.”

Then let folks who actually have the capability of producing anything do it.

THIS LEAVES OUT THE DEMOCRATIC POLITICIANS AND THE MSM.

[Vaduz]

The only construction of railroads in LA needs to be right down the center of the 405 freeway.

[super7man]

I can currently fly out of three convenient Bay Area airports and into three convenient LA airports for $48 on South West. Flight time <1hr.

My time is worth at least $50/hr so to take the extra hour to ride rail to LA, they need to pay me $50 to induce me to ride. So to get me off the plane and get me to ride the rail net fare would be $2 to me.

Not much profit there is they have to pay each passenger $2 to ride.

[tradergem]

How can they run a high speed train along the coastal route when they can’t keep the present rail line operating all of the time due to the unstable geology of the California coast?

They can run a high speed train down the San Joaquin Valley with little problem until they hit the southern transverse mountain ranges. They have a hard enough time running regular trains over the Tehachapi Mountains. Ever hear of the Tehachapi Loop? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehachapi_Loop

[oldenuff2no]

First San Francisco can be reached by buss. That is good enough. Run the high speed train from Sacramento to Los Angles. Sacramento is the capital of this state and should have primary service. If you want to extend it run it on north to Seattle. People would use that system. If San Francisco really needs service then they need to build a spur from Sacramento over the hill and then charge them enough to make it pay for itself without any of my money subsidizing it. We have been paying San Francisco's bills since the last big earth quake. Many of us are tired of this rip off. We too know of natural disasters. We have suffered droughts that put many thousands out of business. We didn't see one single dime from the cities of this state.
They can rot, they can walk, or they can ride the buss. I'll gladly toss a big wrench in anything they have going.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

“Now, California must connect our major metropolitan cities with an economically viable, environmentally friendly, sustainable high-speed rail system.”

Why “must”? What “must”? What is the impetus, themotivation? Just because it’s paintable as “forward looking? What makes this goofball scheme “economically viable”? Just saying it’s so?

I shudder to think of the corruption involved in handing over to the state the dozens of billions of dollars it will take to complete this project.

Sure, it would be desirable to have such a train. I’d like to have a Lamborghini, too. Yet the history of these projects show conclusively that they *never* make economic sense. The fairly obvious conclusion is that such a system will never impact travel patterns in a state so spread out as California. Not having a magic wand to somehow conjure such a system out of fairy dust, it’s nothing more than a giant union-based decade-plus project amounting to very little. Studies have shown that ticket prices for this thing would have to be very high; and a good starting point for a price estimate would be 2.5 times what’s currently being guesstimated. It would be dozens of times more productive to begin building half a dozen nuclear power plants.

[dalereed]

18th century transportation from nowhere to nowhere!

There is no reason for massive amounts of people to travel on your junk!