California's high-speed train wreck

[clearvision]

Los Angeles Times:

California's much-vaunted high-speed rail project is, to put it bluntly, a train wreck. Intended to demonstrate the state's commitment to sustainable, cutting-edge transportation systems, and to show that the U.S. can build rail networks as sophisticated as those in Europe and Asia, it is instead a monument to the ways poor planning, mismanagement and political interference can screw up major public works. For anti-government conservatives, it is also a powerful argument for scrapping President Obama's national rail plans, rescinding federal funding and canceling the project before any more money is wasted on it.

We couldn't disagree more. We pointed out back in 2008, before voters approved nearly $10 billion in state bonds to fund the project under Proposition 1A, that it would be more expensive and difficult to build than its backers were letting on. But we endorsed it anyway because of the economic and environmental benefits the train could bring. The benefits still outweigh the costs, and none of the $43-billion project's troubles are insurmountable. Fortunately, a report last week from the state Legislative Analyst's Office offers strong recommendations for getting the system back on track.

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$4B committed by US is being used to build portion of the rail line between two small cities as the US says you have to start by 2012. They are fearful they will be stuck with a train to nowhere and want US to spend the money on a portion between San Fran and San Jose or Los Angeles and Anaheim. That way if money drys up they still have a "useable train".

[Pepper]

These MORONS added 30 minutes to what is now about three hours of driving. On the plus side, there is always the chance that a passenger could get a first hand look at the San Andreas fault when it opens up in again in Palmdale.

 

 

Roadtrip Along the Path of High Speed Rail

[clearvision]

Thanks for the article Pepper, I need to read up more on this.

[SrWoodchuck]

These MORONS added 30 minutes to what is now about three hours of driving. On the plus side, there is always the chance that a passenger could get a first hand look at the San Andreas fault when it opens up in again in Palmdale.

 

 

Roadtrip Along the Path of High Speed Rail

Thanks for that, Pepper!

 

I lived at the extreme [opposite] North end of Oswell Avenue, while a senior at Foothills High School; and FHS is probably only a few miles from the Bakersfield Terminus. As the "sports editor" of the school paper, I was required to travel to most of the miniature metropoli[?] mentioned in your link. Baseball, basketball, football & cross-country.....your man in the stands was......moi. One of my girlfriend's was our tennis team star.....so I'd travel with her to her matches & report on them, too. Bakersfield is locally popular as being,"..on the way to [insert LA, Fresno or Vegas, here]..." but at one time was the 2nd largest agricultural area of the United States. It's vineyards are prolific....a fact that I ably tested as a youth....when Red Mountain wine sold for a little over a buck a gallon. Also a center for illegal immigration & Mexican tar heroin at the time [which I did NOT sample- the heroin, I mean] and had the advantage of at least 3 major Latino gangs, the Mexican & regular mafia [it was a money-laundering center for Vegas] and at one time had the Bakersfield Police Department tossed out of the national police union, for evidence of too much organized crime in it's area. It was also a huge oil production center [my Dad was superintendent for Shell Oil then.] with operating pumping units competing with citrus orchards for space around the city. A local tourist T-shirt proclaims, "Bakersfield-A dry riverbed runs through it".....because the mighty Kern river is now a mere trickle, due to development & agricultural use. Connection to LA, would be a major money maker, but connection to Palmdale is a tourist attraction for impossible government stupidity & waste.

[Argyle58]

Also a center for illegal immigration & Mexican tar heroin at the time [which I did NOT sample- the heroin, I mean]

 

Are we to infer that you DID sample an illegal immigrant?

[SrWoodchuck]

Also a center for illegal immigration & Mexican tar heroin at the time [which I did NOT sample- the heroin, I mean]

 

Are we to infer that you DID sample an illegal immigrant?

The girl I took to Disneyland for our senior class trip was the lovely daughter of the man who ran the biggest landscape & lawn business in the Bakersfield area. We drove her hot & quick, El Camino "396" to Orange County & back for the day.

[Rheo]