Posted on 06/04/2012 6:04:16 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
California's politicians have until Aug 31 to give a final green light to an initial $6 billion, 130-mile section of track in the Central Valley
Ambitious plans for a fast track linking Los Angeles and San Francisco at speeds of up to 220mph in just over two-and-a-half hours were slimly approved by 53 per cent in a statewide ballot in 2008. That allowed the state to raise $10 billion from bonds and secured an injection of $3.5 billion in stimulus money from the Obama administration. There is currently no direct train route between the two.
Construction is expected to begin later this year in the middle of California's Central Valley near Merced, a town of 80,000 people known for having one of the highest home foreclosure rates in America.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Whoever wrote this should be fired. There is a direct rail route from LA to San Fran. It’s called the Starlight Express and it’s run by another money losing Government boondoggle called Amtrak.
Close. It's the Coast Starlight.
Thank you for correcting my error.
The coast starlight does not stop in San Francisco.
Or more accurately, Amtrak does not have any trains that stop in San Francisco!
I can’t help but think of the mess a derailing at 200mph would make when I see these things going full speed in news clips.
And not just the potential for accidents, they seem to me to make one hell of a target.
If you’re bent on bringing down a plane, you’ve gotta get you or your device onto the thing. With these trains, getting access to any point on hundreds of miles of track could produce similar results.
In the Olden Days, Sacramento Northern interurban trains ran on the lower level of the Bay Bridge and stopped in San Francisco’s Transbay Terminal.
The Bay Bridge handled light rail then, but it could not handle Amtrak and freight trains. As far as I know, the new Bay Bridge isn’t being built for them either.
Emeryville, for all it’s flaws, is close enough.
Curious; what happens when a 220mph train hits a Deer, Cow or a car?
I just want to know where are they going to get the 6 billion?
Our state is broke; who are they going to rob, who are they going to mug. I spent the last 23 years I was employed dealing with 1 to 5 year budget requests and projections to operate my department. I know how to fudge the numbers and I know how to spend towards the end of the budget cycle. As a dumb old just a high school graduate; even I know what a zero based budget is and how to calculate it, and I know how to balance a check book.
They don’t want the train. They want the grant money.
What happens to a loaded train at 220 mph in a serious earthquake?
Inquiring minds wonder....
California’s broke. The whole train thing makes them look like fools.
so this is only an Express? no other service except SF and LA?
I've been on it ...
It stops in Oakland, then you catch light transit bus or BART into SF.
BTW: It is a great way to travel [but you have to book the sleeping car]. Otherwise, if you go Coach, you are hunched over after one day. Plus, with the sleeping car, you get shower !!!
I went to a convention in LA and took vacation time to take the train.
DC to Chicago, Chicago to Seattle, Seattle to LA [Coast Starlight].
A week in LA, then across the Southwest to New Orleans [HAD to stop there to party for a few days !!!], then New Orleans back to DC.
Total cost was about $1500 for ten days on the train. Private room, NICE community shower, meals INCLUDED [except for tip].
PLUS, going first class, many freebies and gifties [etched wine glasses, towels, coasters, etc.]. AND PARTIES for first class !!!
HEAVEN !!!
Not so fast sheeple. You forget that once in operation the TSA will exercise it’s right to inspect! Get there 2 hours early, pass thru the scanners, get felt up and groped, and then board your train after the baggage inspectors have stolen everything of value out of your luggage. Cost, about the same as the plane after a trillion or so in subsidies from the feds. Think you’ll take the train and skip the pain of the plane .... forget it!
Any animal smaller than a moose would be essentially vaporized. Even a moose might be.
A car? Ka-boom...
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