California begins building high speed rail

California will begin construction this week on the first part of a high-speed rail system that will eventually connect Los Angeles and San Francisco. In a press release published last week, the California High-Speed Rail Authority said work on the network will officially begin on Tuesday after a ceremonial groundbreaking in the city of Fresno. The first 29-mile segment will be built in the Central Valley in order to begin testing the system. When the $68 billion project is completed, passengers will be able to travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in under three hours.

This week's ceremony comes after years of delays and legal battles over the system, which has proven to be a divisive issue among California's political leadership. Construction was supposed to began two years ago, but was delayed over land acquisitions and disputes over funding. The system is now set to be completed by 2028, though as the Los Angeles Times reports, officials still need to secure full funding, and Republicans in Congress have said they will not commit federal money to it.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/5/7493159/california-high-speed-rail-system-construction-los-angeles-san-francisco

lmao holy crap 13 years and 68 billion, what a joke. North America is in need of a HSR system but not like this, not like this. :(

You could say there's nothing high speed about it's construction.

sooo, no hyperloop then?

pussies

That's a lot of money.

Pretty sure that was just a pipe dream and not an actual serious proposal. Would have been amazing though.

$68 billion that could go to building a larger natural gas infrastructure to help further cut down on greenhouse gas emissions from large trucks.

If I remember correctly this is like OP's fourth or fifth thread on trains.

Natural gas trucks are awful. Make them go away. We had one in our truck shop the other day and it was an utter pain in the ass for the techs to work on. Not to mention the fact that it was less than a year old and already needed worked on.

With all that money, they best built it right. I take the BART train every day, and i tell you it can't handle strong winds, or rain. It keeps breaking down, and then has to go like 5-15 miles an hour. They best really think about building it correctly.

Thanks

Oh, I know, but as long as they are building the infrastructure, they will never go away. California is weird when it comes to things trucking (and their bullshit emission laws), but NG trucks are going to be making huge in-roads in the regional haul sector (and rightly so given the promised mpgs). Companies will not be able to deny the cost savings that the manufacturers promise. Better for the Cali government to spend money on something that can actually make a difference for something than something for the sake of convenience.

Long haul trucking is the last industry that will see any move away from fossil fuels.

And aren't most new trucks these days that aren't gliders in the shop on a regular basis for code resets?

$68 BILLION? Holy fucking shit. I bet the entire country is paying for that beast.

Ah good, republicans won't fund it. There's a huge dose of fiscal sanity for California.

Yeah I've got a thing for stuff like HSR and mag-lev trains. It just sucks that North America is so far behind compared to Europe and Asia in this area.

Does it?

California wants a choo choo, good. Do it with your state money.

Nah, a truck bought new won't see any downtime usually for about 300,000+ miles. When Mercedes first brought their engines over to the US there were lots of problems with the engines and they were in shop shortly after purchase. Now you can usually drive for a long time without any significant problems. Currently most the trucks we see in the shop are in the '06 or '07 range. They are getting to the point where the engine components are beginning to break down from huge miles. Now some stuff does break sooner but it's mostly switches, panels, lights etc that are easy side of the road fixes if you fix them at all. If the driver takes care of his truck it'll usually last a long time before needing service. Obviously you gotta get oil and filters changed regularly but for the most part your truck should run for many miles without issue.

Well that's good. I hear a lot of stories about some of the new Paccar and Volvo trucks are notorious for excessive down time due to sensor problems. I like hearing stories from the mechanics and shops though, they seem even more on the ball than most drivers. I just met a mechanic over the holidays who pretty much gave me all the best companies in Manitoba to work for (and with starting training in a few weeks, this is really important).

That's not to say that a national or a trans-national HSR system wouldn't be totally awesome.

Yeah. On top of a San Francisco-LA line a HSR line from Boston-NY-DC would be amazing for citizens and local businesses. It's certainly a better investment than something like the Keystone pipeline.

High speed rail is great if it feeds passenger traffic where there is desperate need for it (i.e. if Interstates are backed up during rush hour periods to extreme slows or even stops)... but I'm not sure if such large scale HSR would be that beneficial. Smaller branch lines that inter-connect with other transportation systems (where people can "park and ride") would be far more cost-effective than building one giant direct system.

Well, the Keystone pipeline is a private investment. If there is a private individual or group who wishes to pay for all or part of a national or transnational HSR system they are more than welcome to try it out.

Traffic congestion is a massive problem in Southern California so this particular line seems to be an answer to that problem. The line itself has 6 or 7 stops just like a normal train system for riders who want to get on and off at their convenience. Since California's railways are outdated and public transit in general there is awful building an initial system from scratch and gradually building more seems like the best solution IMO. A hypothetical Boston-NY-DC line would be the same only it would service more people and integrate seamlessly with the MTA, MBTA, and the DC metro.

You should start a kickstarter Aljosa.

I should. If Anita Sarkeesian can get 100k to make shitty videos I should be able to scrounge a few billion to build 'Murica the transportation system they deserve.

68 Billion seems like allot of money, but i'm sure they will make it back in no time with this rail system in place. Just think BART, which is a cheap system, well cheaper system, i pay like $7 dollars twice in a day, plus $3.00 in parking. So that is about almost $17 dollars a day from one rider. I believe they say there are like 1 Million riders a day. Now i know the calculations are not the same for people traveling to LA, but you get the idea. This is a money maker that will always make money, so putting in 68 Billion will not be much. They will make it back in no time.

68 billion and 13 years of construction? What.

The Chinese built the Three Gorges Dam for a third of the money in two thirds of the time.

Why does everything cost so much in the west lately. It's getting absurd.

Hell, Shanghai built a 30,5 kilometer Maglev system for 1,2 billion, which is about 400.000$ per kilometer of track. This thing will cost freaking 110.000.000$ per kilometer. What the **** is wrong with these people?

California should import some Chinese laborers to help build the rail.

It's because we're car dependent. Cars are less commonly used in Europe and Asia. Europe has limited space and many people in Asia don't have access to cars and/or can't afford one.

Hmm a little over 2 percent of the federal annual budget (for the record I have no idea where they are getting this money) does seem like an awful lot for one state for a single project. On the other hand the construction jobs would last for thirteen years, and it would reduce traffic for California.

There are definitely pros and cons to this, and I'm not really an expert.

Isn't cheap labor why so many businesses moved to China? I would assume the same holds true for their construction jobs.

Another possible aspect of this to consider is technology. As more jobs are available to be done from home the less people will need to go out everyday. Considering this thing isn't supposed to be up and running for 13 years technology might take a good chunk of the traffic problem away over that same time period. It's hard to say whether or not that means this issue would work itself out naturally (kinda doubt it), but it's something I hope those who made this decision stopped to consider.

somebody is making a crapload off that contract.

China will have completed its first orbital tether space elevator by the time this railway line is complete. :-/

You are assuming this thing will be capable of handling one million riders a day. No where does it say such a thing.

Because we actually pay our workers.

I'm sure this project will put coin in many a pocket.

As much as the US could use this...I have a bit of a feeling of contempt towards high speed rail ever since John Kerry spoke for what felt like 3 hours at my college graduation about it.

lol California

nuff said

California has a gross state product of over 2 trillion dollars. So, no, it's really not that much in the long run.

Not the entire continent, but certain areas. Mainly the mid-Atlantic and southern New England. But there is a definite need for it.

And that has nothing to do with their budget, which isn't anywhere close to 2 trillion dollars.

Either way, though, they can pay for it themselves if they really want it.

More like we overpay our unions.

Even if we didn't overpay our unions the Chinese would still have us beat on labor costs. Most of their country live in poverty. They work for food, essentially.

You know God forbid people make enough of a living to actually enjoy their lives. You may not like everything unions stand for, but we should be thankful enough to pay the people who improve our infrastructure without bickering about it being something above slave wages.

2028?! Damn that's a long time, and only from Los Angeles to San Francisco? I'm really not an expert of what materials are needed for this system, so does anyone have any idea on why its gonna take this long?

Considering how long its gonna take to finally complete, and the huge amount of money being put into it, somehow it doesn't feel like its gonna feel much like an accomplishment.

not exactly what I'd do, but I agree with the point.

I don't see a 68 billion dollar rail being as useful as it could elsewhere.

I have a feeling that he's a 13 year old fiscal conservative.

Because when someone says overpay it automatically means anything above slave wages.

Hmmmm. I did a paper on the California high-speed rail system back in 2012. Construction was supposed to commence in September of that year.

It's just getting started now? Ouch.

Well it's a start but it seems highly overpriced to what it should be and alot of back alley bullshit with contractors overcharging the government through the nose.. If only people in this country would realize how much the infastructure all over the place has deteriorated due to ignoring it and under funding it.. It seriously seems like we are going to have to have another epic disaster like the oil spill in the gulf (in which it suddenly became apparent why we needed more inspectors for instance and different regulations), for people to have their knee jerk reaction.. That is the problem now a days, every one is reactionary and not proactive with the problems at hand.. People will only raise a fuss of the bridge their driving over suddenly collapses.

Well I'm not missing out on much, we have Amtrak and our very own brand new Sunrail here, not high speed but they get the job done.