The bullet electric train initiative in California passed. Here's a map of the route

[lunatica]

[HuckleB]

1. Cool. I didn't know anything about this.

Do you have a link with information about it?

[PermanentRevolution]

7. Official site

http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/

[sce56]

12. Go to this page for a good visualization of it

http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/map.htm

[bananas]

23. This blog has lots of good information and discussion

http://cahsr.blogspot.com/

[Kazak]

2. Hell yes!

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Way Kewl! But, did they pass a way to pay for it?

[Mz Pip]

8. Of course not.

That's why CA has a gazillion dollar deficit. People pass these propositions thinking "Way Kewl!" but don't bother to read the fine print.

And heaven forbid we raise taxes.

[fascisthunter]

4. That's a lot of Track to Monitor...

especially in a state plagued with earth quakes.

[cliffordu]

5. No kidding....

:rofl:

Looks like it runs right over the San Andreas a couple of times.....

[sce56]

10. So does the California Aqueduct and has been since the 70's

You can't do anything about the faults other than to build strong and be prepared to fix it as they have in past quakes. What are we supposed to do just leave?

[cliffordu]

11. The aqueduct is one thing.....High speed rail is, as they say, a whole 'nother country.

Although it will make for must see tv when the train shoots off the track at 250 miles an hour.

[sce56]

17. Well shit happens! Like the LAPD motorcycle officer that went flying off the overpass in 1994

In all, eight Southern California freeways were damaged, including the Highway 14 and Interstate 5 interchange. The interchange's collapse cut off freeway access to Los Angeles for hundreds of thousands of residents of northern Los Angeles County. Ironically, that interchange had collapsed 23 years earlier, during the Sylmar Earthquake of 1971.



Maybe we should not let those people drive down I5 it has collapsed twice now in 23 years!


Note they now call it the Clarence Wayne Dean Memorial Interchange.
Maybe we should all just move to Florida oh I forgot they get Hurricanes more often than we get quakes!

[sutz12]

15. Japan seems to manage...

I know we Americans don't like to learn anything from other countries, but there's a shitload of experience there to be tapped.

:shrug:

[fascisthunter]

25. That's an Excellent Point that My Brain Should Have Thought Of

But being as sick as I have been the last tow days, it makes sense.

[dixiegrrrrl]

21. BART runs thru fault lines also.

I always got nervous riding BART during the underwater part between SF and Oakland.
Kept seeing Shelley Winters face for some reason.

[lunatica]

24. Bart stood up to the Loma Prieta earthquake quite well

Including trains that were under the bridge that had a section that collapsed.

It's built through the bedrock.

[katmondoo]

6. Several years ago Florida passed an initiative for a fast train route

to the Orlando Airport under Jeb Bush and nothing happened.

[PermanentRevolution]

9. Yeah, we passed a second initiative in 2004 rescinding the first one

This state, sometimes...

:eyes:

[KamaAina]

13. Why so few stops in the Central Valley?

The smaller cities in particular -- the very ones being bypassed -- could sure use an economic growth engine like this. Every train wouldn't have to make every stop; they could have express and local trains.

[ben_meyers]

14. But will "teh gays" be allowed to ride the train together?

I understand that the have been banned in CA.

[IDemo]

16. beat me to it...

[msongs]

18. too many stops = goodbye "bullet" train, just another expensive slow one nt

[kestrel91316]

19. Wow. Imagine that. Train service that actually takes you from Los Angeles

to San Francisco without a bus trip stuck in there somewhere.

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. wow..news to me...thanks for posting and I will

:kick:
and R.

edit:spelling

[StreetKnowledge]

22. I've been studying this project.

And I should answer a few questions.

Earthquakes are a concern, but that's also the case in Japan, and Japan has NEVER had a fatality on the Shinkansen sinmce it opened in 1964. France's TGV has a similar safety record, as does Amtrak's Acela. The German ICE has had one accident involving a number of deaths, but that was a freak accident caused by a wheel that shattered at 155 mph. Safety here is not a big deal, because high speed trains are safer than just about any other form of transport.

The number of stops seems high in the Los Angeles and SF Bay areas, but not every train is going to stop at every station. The goal is to run from Frisco to LA in about three hours. I've made that trip before, and often air travel between the two isn't that fast. The system's plan also includes a bunch of projects to better transit to and from the HSR lines. It's a wonderful concept, and if the prices are right and oil keeps staying at high levels, this service could get very popular. If its as popular as many say it could be, it won't need operating subsidies at all - and true to form, Japan's Shinkansen and France's TGV don't need them, either.

It's not a cheap project, but its a technical showcase that will work well as a business as well.

California's budget problems come from stuff such as Proposition 13. Remember that, the initiative to make sure tax levels stay so low that they cannot fund the services needed?

[Eurobabe]

26. Awesome, now duplicate that across the nation!!

America desperately need to overhaul its passenger rail system, maybe with Biden, 'Mr. Amtrak' can push it a little?