How California's Bullet Train Went Off the Rails

[mahatmakanejeeves]

nytimes.com
How California’s Bullet Train Went Off the Rails
America’s first experiment with high-speed rail has become a multi-billion-dollar nightmare. Political compromises created a project so expensive that almost no

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IfHatHadHappened Retweeted

Favorite part of the NYT California high-speed rail autopsy.

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[Auggie]

1. Paywall ... can't really the article

I'd like to.

Bad idea, and boondoggle, from the beginning. I voted against the Bullet Train, wanting money for local mass transit projects like upgrading/extending BART, CalTrain, Amtrak, etc.

[Shipwack]

3. I posted a non pay-wall link in another message below... nt

[Merlot]

4. The original idea was good - a straight link between LA and SFO

It was to follow the existing 5 interstate because the infrastructure was already there. The LA to SFO corridor is one of the most traveled in the country. Unfortunately politicians in the small towns between SFO and LA wanted to have stops put in - not really accepting the idea that a bullet train doesn't make a lot of stops.

I wish it would have been completed but as soon as I heard that they weren't following the original plan of going straight up interstate 5, I knew it was a boondoggle that would never work. So we're stuck with a 7 hour drive, or air planes and airports.

We really lost out on this one, all thanks to politicians.

[lambchopp59]

6. Do you happen to remember

The idiotic "STOP BART" commitee?
I was just a precocious tyke at the time, staying at my Aunt and Uncle's place. But from what I'd seen of BART's plan, I was excited to think that such an infrastructure could eventually extend out to where they were, and eventually it did. Plans now are for a Stockton extension.
What struck me were pictures of the grey haired old ladies that made up that bunch of screwball witches: and the quote from the paper that they were fearful that a BART extension into lower peninsula would bring "that urban element". Long dead Cruella DeVilles killed those puppies long ago and screwed future generations. They fucked up transit throughout the peninsula and Marin, opting for the expressways that now become polluting parking lots from 5 to 7 p.m..
Now that ridiculous, chugging CalTrain shoves passengers off to BART seems a symbol of similar anti-progress delusion. my own parents were convinced of sustainability of freeways, cars. They only came around to realizing how unworkable that was on a visit to me in Mountain View, and saw for themselves the mess that had become.
Now, of course, all these plans that should have been initiated half a century ago are now prohibitively expensive.

[Auggie]

7. BART was operational before I moved to the Bay Area ...

I missed the planning stages except for the SFO expansion. Originally BART was suppose to extend through the entire airport but some took issue with the added expense. It reaches the International terminal.

I've spent a lot of time on BART though, and San Francisco's Muni Metro, CalTrain, and the Capitol Corridor. All great concepts that desperately need upgrades and expansion.

[enid602]

8. electrification/improvement of lines

The project is electrifying lines for MetroLink, BART, Caltrains and The Coaster. Metro is just subway and light rail. The high speed project is about 80% finished.

[Shipwack]

2. Non-paywall link (I hope it works!):

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/us/california-high-speed-rail-politics.html?unlocked_article_code=aAV99DWHase-Y1gIRL_T4eyFLPzPblIco1hcNpMZP33I53ILpG-4YQjdxc7noVcbyDJCoe6ihsyoz7wexNJtmW0PvR7USpgWp94uSc3ZxQalRlMY9gQkipaL4td8HcDOmjtdIqRYf_mG2E5JmvNyNMLVL2-GSsix1pi6KBUopGe_1tkHOQQIh6kv2yrM8hh3mlik1O0MJmsN8M9nII75W3ZvtVuGLRSHbffGy4NArKMwrJc_UScvz7fskv74JB5Y5eYokjSBMjKZjMFDf2zwxuGOg5jV0dc2vuSd4Zjr7xfeHSoDI1VYE6YATDouMjhaCTt9NZcxKtOd92b0fZpmeJ4r5pLtywk6zw&smid=share-url

[Auggie]

5. Yay -- it works! Thank you Shipwack and mahatmakanejeeves!