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Just curious..if China could help build it with half cost and half time, would CA accept? If not, why?
by yadongwen 9y ago
Just curious..if China could help build it with half cost and half time, would CA accept? If not, why?
- mozumder 9y agoKinda amazing that the Chinese could help build our railroads again...
- sjg007 9y agoUnions, regulations, politics. Also quality issues maybe.
- 1024core 9y agoIIRC, SNCF, the French consortium, had offered up a plan to build the HSR from SF to LA. They asked for no public funding. http://marketurbanism.com/2012/07/10/what-i-learned-today-about-sncf-and-california-hsr/ http://marketurbanism.com/2012/07/10/what-i-learned-today-ab...
- gsnedders 9y agoBut, vitally, they didn't want to deal with all the politics of the routeing. Large infrastructure projects are always in large part down to politics, potentially to their detriment (in this case, the business case being weakened by higher construction costs and slower end-to-end journeys leading to less keen private investors).
- gsnedders 9y agoThe Buy America Act is some of the problem, AFAIK. There's going to have to be a fair amount of training and construction of manufacturing sites for what is ultimately going to be relatively small orders, unless further HSR is built in the US.
- pfarnsworth 9y agoYou mean like the Bay Bridge?
- nitwit005 9y agoYou might recall California has a long history of employing Chinese immigrants for railroad construction. In modern times, the biggest obstacle to new train routes tends to be acquiring the right of way. You generally have to buy up all the property in the path, or compensate people, and deal with the politics/lawsuits that generates. There are a number of public documents about programs for the high speed rail project: http://www.hsr.ca.gov/Programs/private_property.html http://www.hsr.ca.gov/Programs/private_property.html
- mahyarm 9y agoIt's the country your building it in, not the people who are doing it.
- DrScump 9y agoSure, it worked out so well with the Bay Bridge. /s