Just an odd question....are people in Merced that desperate to go over to Bakersfield?
I dunno. I haven’t been to California since 2014.
Good Q! And how many and how often? And the daily schedule, is it once a day each way. And when you get there, how do you get around?
So many questions, raised years ago, that went without answers.
It has been quite a few years since I’ve been to Merced. I figured their demogrphics was like the rest of the small towns in California....99% hispanic.
“...are people in Merced that desperate to go over to Bakersfield?”
The politicians have known since day one that the train is not needed, not wanted and a political impossibility. As in most government projects, the project itself is not the point. Having control of the money is the point. So, they chose to build the first leg in an area where they thought they could force compliance. Knowing full well that they would never be able to run the train into large cities as the access corridor would be fought by inches and that fight would cost far more than the train. Again, it’s about money, not transportation.
The city of Tallahassee bus ridership was counted in the low dozens. Buses ran all over the city with one or two passengers and this was easily observable by everyone. Complaints were made. The city bought all new buses with one-way glass. Passengers, if there were any, could see out, but no one outside could see in. The bus service has run at a substantial deficit forever. But providing bus service is not the point. Having the budget and spending it is the point. The city bragged that they were the first to introduce kneeling busses. (They were all soon out of service.) Then, they bragged they owned the very first electric busses. (They spent so much time being maintained and charged, they are now all out of service.) Money, or, perhaps politics...not service.