Posted on 04/11/2021 4:52:34 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
This train will never reach fruition but the IDIOT in the state house will keep pouring money down an endless rathole.
There’s a very good reason we call this the train from “nowhere to nowhere” - Merced to Bakersfield? (OK, I have family in both places, but take the 5 freeway to visit).
Anyone wanting to get up or down the state quickly is going to take Southwest Air, not a SLOW train.
Under discussed: self driving EVs.
Most long drives are mostly on freeways or otherwise easy roads. When people get over the initial horror of driving 1000 miles by napping, browsing, gaming, and enjoying the passing view while enduring just two 20-minute breaks, and arriving at destination already having a vehicle and whatever they want to bring and on their own schedule, trains can’t compete and planes only by sheer speed.
I travel to San Francisco frequently from the Los Angeles area. It's about a 7-hour car trip or an hour by plane. I take both depending on the trip.
Looked into taking AmTrak just for fun, once - it was nine-10 hours and the drop-off is Oakland (NO)- with a bus over to SF. The drop-off was at 10 at night - (in Oakland?) and I'd still have to rent a car and then fly back. The train trip was twice the cost of both of us flying - and that was one-way.
And this new "high-speed train" (oxymoron) is supposed to improve travel between Southern and Northern California?
I think, they actually want the rail, but they are just such luddites, they passed so many “environmental protection” laws, native protection laws, and milliard of similar laws, that they tight themselves into a knot of their own making.
You actually hit on something - the private interests can probably work around those laws sometimes, but government must follow their laws. They have to cover their butts so they can enjoy their plush retirements.
Since the invention of the motorcar, rail transport has never been worthwhile. Exception being a handful of large cities that were built around a light rail system.
Building light rail in an existing city never works.
Too many snouts in the trough to let the boondoggle dry up.
Good post—whenever I hear a politician talk about infrastructure I just start laughing.
Anyone who has actually tried to build any major projects knows they will be buried under a pile of environmental lawsuits and permitting nightmares.
We will have colonies on Mars before CA completes a bullet train connecting SF and LA.
Reason—there are no bureaucrats on Mars!
On a local level, here in Sullivan county, a new fantastic high school is nearing completion
There is a problem. No road
Some of the or perhaps only one of the county politicos owns the land required for the road. He pissed off the county court by asking too much and they refuse to buy.
So, there is impasse and no road.
The process is universal an the rule since America’s earliest days.
Correct me if I’m wrong but the politicians who support High Speed Rail sold on providing service in underserved areas, like Modesto and Bakersfield....
The problem with that idea is by including smaller cities as stops it makes the service less desirable rather than more desirable, it only increases the time and cost of traveling between the two major cities....not to mention using a less direct route increasing the cost of acquiring land, etc..
Airlines will never stop in Bakersfield or Modesto in between LA and SFO....
A trillion dollar walking trail—that is exactly what the Democrats mean when they say “Build Back Better”!
The way it normally works is:
—Politicians get advance notice of planned secret future route.
—Politicians buy land dirt cheap along future route.
—Politicians promise kick-backs to friends in charge of project.
—Project pays exorbitant price for parcels of land.
—Project goes way over budget as a result.
—Friends in charge of project retire to their dachas in the countryside.
Everybody wins—except the taxpayers who are totally f&^%ed.
The way it normally works is:
—Politicians get advance notice of planned secret future route.
—Politicians buy land dirt cheap along future route.
—Politicians promise kick-backs to friends in charge of project.
—Project pays exorbitant price for parcels of land.
—Project goes way over budget as a result.
—Friends in charge of project retire to their dachas in the countryside.
Everybody wins—except the taxpayers who are totally f&^%ed.
Whatever the arguments for or against having such a train, just remember it will not happen and it was never intended to happen. It exists to be milked for graft, and will eventually be quietly cancelled.
“...between Bakersfield and Merced”
Given that route, about the use for the train is for cows to visit their relatives. But have they said how much the tickets will cost, and how the cows, who make less than minimum wage, will pay for them?
Actually, Bakersfield has a nice little airport. My grandparents lived right down the street, it’s expanded since that time. Some of my relatives fly out of there, some travel to LAX for longer flights. I believe there is an airport bus to LA. California is a huge state, a lot of it still rural.
The Modesto-Bakersfield high-speed train route was supposed to be completed as a “showcase” - as to what the entire line would look like eventually, which was originally supposed to go from LA to San Francisco. No one who travels that distance is going to use the train, too slow and clunky - and in most places, a car is still mandatory (I know it is for us) - and needed in your destination to get around, so that is one more expense.
Both are poor towns and won’t get a lot of commuters between the two places - someone said the train goes near one of the prisons so you may have that demographic, otherwise it’ll be illegals - and they won’t be able to afford it by the time it’s done - and neither will the state of California.
All your points are valid....
The hub/spoke system of air travel that has developed over the years allows a town like Modesto to have a nice little airport, countless cities like that exist across the country....
They all connect to one or more hubs, in the case of Modesto, maybe SFO, LAX or perhaps SEA and PDX, which then allows them to fly anywhere in the world.....
No train system is possible than can duplicate the way air travel works, the finances, physics and distances make it impossible....
For some reasons the left keeps trying to make it happen...
—” I have conflicting emotions.”
Do the work and do it well.
And anticipate many delays in being paid.
Good luck.
I rode the train between San Luis obispo to burbank in 1992 took 7 hrs at 55mph its 4 hr trip by car, I just last week drove from LA to grants pass or. Took 10 hrs enjoyed the views
That I’m sure is one component. I also think the skim is another. Once the project is finished they will come up against the reality of it being truly a “train to nowhere”.
—”driving 1000 miles by napping, browsing, gaming.. having a vehicle and whatever they want to bring and on their own schedule, trains can’t compete and planes only by sheer speed.”
YES!
I’m still a young septuagenarian but my RT (Reaction Time) can be measured on a kitchen clock.
FSD, (Full Self Driving) is what I want in my next car; hybrid or EV.
Tesla is close but still years away, Honda is selling them in Japan, but with a different approach.
Honda is FSD for city driving up to ~30mph.
... take me to #1 son’s house, and set an alarm for 10 minutes before arrival...
I want it in a package like the Genesis GV80, room for the grandkids.
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