• CombatWombatEsq@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    5 days ago

    I want to take high speed rail from Seattle to LA. That means passing through Central California. Why not through Merced and Bakersfield?

    • evol@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      5 days ago

      Originally their was the option of the coastal route, so you could just then move along the coast up Oregon. But my point is after 25 years all we have to show for it is a train that goes from nowhere to nowhere. The connection to LA and SF is still unfunded from the last time I checked

      • CombatWombatEsq@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        5 days ago

        You’re dropping service to Bakersfield and Fresno and tranversing the Santa Lucias to pick up… San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay??? California should build the cheapest high speed rail that services the most Californians and that means you go through the heart of the Central Valley. Just build it. Today.

        • evol@lemmy.today
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          5 days ago

          I’m not stating its better, but that after 20 years we still do not have anything to show for it, and in 6 years all we will have is a line of Bakersfield to Merced. I’m all for HSR, but it shows how horribly incompetent the state is.

          India is expected to have its first HSR segment by 2028-2029

          The SNCF (French railway company) was initially interested in getting a contract for the high speed rail, they left to go make a HSR in morocco which opened in 2018.

          “SNCF was very angry. They told the state they were leaving for North Africa, which was less politically dysfunctional. They went to Morocco and helped them build a rail system.” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/us/california-high-speed-rail-politics.html

          • CombatWombatEsq@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            5 days ago

            Asserting that the state of California would have built more rail if it had served fewer people and cost more money is a counter factual that I concede I cannot disprove, but I find it a rather unlikely proposition.