California's high speed rail project is full speed ahead

"El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!" (lightningzone) 01/05/2015 at 13:43 • Filed to: None

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I may live on the East Coast, but Jerry Brown for president!!!

user314 > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 01/05/2015 at 13:53

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I hope Leonard Nemoy is available for the dedication!

djmt1 > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 01/05/2015 at 13:56

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I wonder what will be done first. This or HS2. Considering how much Britain and The US contributed to the development of the railways you would think they would have their own high-speed rail network 50 years ago let alone today.

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > djmt1 01/05/2015 at 14:05

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That's because we like our oil companies big and powerful, and they don't like it when their competition gets in the 21st century(or the 20th century, if you're talking about Japan).

HenryKillinger > user314 01/05/2015 at 14:12

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I call the big one "Bitey"

djmt1 > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 01/05/2015 at 14:13

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Well at least it is finally getting done. High speed rail has a 100% track record across the planet and yet people still bitch every time a proposal is made. Even Morocco has a full fledge high speed rail network and we don't, how has that happened?

Luke's Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 01/05/2015 at 14:27

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1. I live in LA. I'll be able to go to San Fran for Chinese food a lot more now.

2. I can finally ride United's Boeing 787 route from SFO-IAH when I come home from college for breaks.

3. I for one welcome our new fast transportation overlords.

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > djmt1 01/05/2015 at 14:30

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Well, you got Fox News watchers, and if it was up to them, we would all be traveling on coal powered, Rascal scooters with NASCAR decals all over them.

And then there's some NGO's, who have a problem, with you disturbing some lizards, boulders and bushes in the California valley. It still amazes me what NGO's will do for a few oil bucks.

djmt1 > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 01/05/2015 at 14:36

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In a America.

sketchcat > Luke's Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna 01/05/2015 at 14:41

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nor-cal to so-cal:

The Chinese food really isnt all that much better up here.

Decent Vietnamese though.

looking forward to riding it someday.

old cranks that beoyotch about everything will not be issued passes, but can earn double no-miles by including the Gas Tax in any future rants.

I for one am proud the Golden State is trying something, anything... air travel in the state sucks.

davedave1111 > djmt1 01/05/2015 at 14:56

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The two projects do seem to have a lot in common, on the surface. Both are unarguably good ideas, being dragged down by ridiculously poor implementation. HS2 could have been built by now if they'd done it right, and would have cost under Ł10b in total.

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > Luke's Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna 01/05/2015 at 15:03

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Not so fast.

davedave1111 > djmt1 01/05/2015 at 15:06

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HSR, according to some (reasonable) people is never profitable in and of itself. It's something which makes sense for governments to finance because it brings greater net benefits, but it's not worth building privately because a lot of the benefits can't be captured as profit.

Given that it pretty much has to come from government, it's not too surprising the US lags behind.

Incidentally, the Moroccan scheme is f-ing ridiculous. It's totally misguided, and largely driven by French neo-colonialism. Morocco is barely better than third-world, so it has low literacy (~70%) and high poverty, a third of the population don't have access to good water sources, life expectancy is in the low seventies, and GDP per cap of about $5k a year. It's patently bonkers for them to be spending billions on high speed rail.

djmt1 > davedave1111 01/05/2015 at 15:20

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Considering the massive costs of infrastructure it isn't surprising that HSR networks are rarely ever profitable but like you said that is besides the point. I do wonder what will become of HS2 in the end. Much has been said of bridging the North South divide but this whole building in stages nonsense seems to go against that if priority is given to London and the Midlands.

As for Morroco I have to agree when your country has water shortages, power outages and a sizeable illiterate minority there are better infrastructure projects that money could have gone towards that said they are getting a lot of use out it.

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > davedave1111 01/05/2015 at 15:23

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But think of the benefits of a national high speed network combined with a more important role played by clean energy.

davedave1111 > djmt1 01/05/2015 at 15:25

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HS2 makes sense as part of a larger scheme to connect Manchester-Liverpool and Scotland to the European high-speed network - HS3 and possibly 4 are still to come, but there's no point building them first. It's just the ridiculous cost which is the problem.

"that said they are getting a lot of use out it."

I'm sure they will in future, but I understood that even the first phase still has a year to go even if it's finished on time.

sketchcat > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 01/05/2015 at 15:35

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this was my one and only complaint.

But i kinda makes sense to shake the bugs out of it where it will only kill a few happy California cows if something unfortunate happens.

djmt1 > davedave1111 01/05/2015 at 15:35

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I didn't even mean to send this. I was on mobile and it was freaking the fuck out.

I would prefer if they started in Birmingham and branched out from there as opposed from starting from London and crawling north.

I meant to say going to get a lot of since I heard it is going to be subsidised heavily which should help.

Luke's Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 01/05/2015 at 15:38

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If I start now, I can walk to San Francisco and back by 2028.

13 years, I'm going to graduate and have kids by then.

MY PARENTS ARE GOING TO BE 63.

I TOLD THEM THAT WE SHOULD DO THIS FOR A FAMILY VACATION.

davedave1111 > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 01/05/2015 at 15:49

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What was that in response to?

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > Luke's Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna 01/05/2015 at 16:05

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Or you cold avoid the wait and ride one in Japan, now.

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > davedave1111 01/05/2015 at 16:14

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To you, pointing the benefits of the Californian HSR. The benefits of a national HSR network would be huge!

davedave1111 > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 01/05/2015 at 16:48

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I'm not clear where you think I argued otherwise. I made two similar comments in the thread, and you seem to have got whichever one you read upside down.

kermit4karate > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 01/05/2015 at 18:11

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America is falling so far behind. It seems like we can't accomplish big sh*t anymore. European countries that are more socialist than we are are accomplishing bigger things (high-speed rail, the Chunnel, Large Hadron Collider), and countries that are less free are accomplishing bigger things (China). What's the problem here?