this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023
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This should have been the trial HSR project for the west coast, not the LA-SF shitshow that has a debatable chance of even getting finished.
They are building in a strange ass way, but it will connect two major cities when it opens, just not the two you listed. Those legs will come later.
Also, fuck cost overruns being an issue. The initial Japanese bullet trains cost 2x what they were projected to, and all people say about that 50 years later is "when can you build more?"
Same goes for highway cost overruns. No one makes a peep when shitty concrete costs way more than planned, but if a revolutionary transit system that's climate friendly, cheap and helps the working class has issues? Hell no, the world is ending.
We need to spend the fucking money and get it done.
I don't think the build is strange, personally. It's really only strange if California is only made of San Francisco and LA, and it isn't. The central valley cities would be major metros in any other state, and they currently have few to no options for travel that don't involve a car.
No. The LA-SF connection was THE connection to make for a number of good reasons:
-HSR is a direct replacement for short-haul airlines. The LAX-SFO corridor is one of if not THE busiest air corridors on earth, and CAHSR is going to put a tremendous dent in it.
-There's not really any easy way to get from California's interior (the central valley cities like Bakersfield, Merced, Fresno, etc that everyone likes to dunk on for not being LA or San Francisco) to LA or San Francisco. Basically, your only options are a shitty drive or a shitty bus, though the Amtrak San Joaquins and ACE extension line can at least get you to the bay area if you can access them. CAHSR makes it much easier for people in California's interior to visit the metro area's without becoming traffic, and makes it easier for folks in the metro area's to visit the central valley in case they uh... Um... Want to see a cow? Oh, go to Yosemite or Sequoia national parks, yeah, that.
-Brightline West is NOT real High Speed Rail. Brightline is sort of at the high end of Mid-Speed Rail, which is still not bad, we could really do with a lot more of it for longer haul passenger service and intercity service where HSR doesn't make sense. But they operate below the official HSR speeds in order to dodge a lot of really expensive FRA regulations. CAHSR can't do that because it has to be a true replacement for the air route, which means that cost overruns are going to happen.
-The first true HSR project in the US was always going to be insanely expensive. California took the hit on this, but hopefully the knowledge, experience, and supply chains the CAHSRA creates will get picked up by other HSR projects in the states who can leverage it to build their projects cheaper.