4 ms·
It's simply crazy there is no decent rail link between SF and LA. It is really the perfect distance for HSR, and I imagine once it was up and running there woul
by martinald 8y ago
It's simply crazy there is no decent rail link between SF and LA. It is really the perfect distance for HSR, and I imagine once it was up and running there would be a lot of very valuable customers willing to pay top dollar for a sub 3 hour ride.
I really can't see what the solution is without HSR, the journey by car is long and very congested. SFO has very little land to expand on with its location.
Does this also kill Caltrain electrification? Also, the transbay transit center is also pretty useless without this as I believe CaHSR was going to pay for the expansion of the tunnels to the TTC.
- radicalbyte 8y agoYou can travel from Amsterdam to Paris - a similar distance as SF-to-LA - in 3.5hrs. That's through three different countries. Paris to London is 2/3rd of the distance and takes 2.5hrs and one of them is an island. Plus the British and the French aren't exactly known for their love of each other. Both are faster than flying once you factor in the huge amount of queuing for safety checks, customs and passport control at airports. America has been generally fantastic at building big stuff so it's hard to understand why they fail at rail. Is it just that the will isn't there because internal flights are fairly painless?
- muzz 8y agoAnd that's with stops in at least Brussels, and likely Schiphol and other places.
- martinald 8y agoYou can also do London to Amsterdam (through 4 countries!) in less than 4 hours direct now (one way until they finish passport control in Amsterdam Centraal).
- 01100011 8y agoI can fly from SJC to SAN in about two hours, curb-to-curb, with TSA Precheck. HSR will never beat that in my lifetime.
- pas 8y agoThe added value would have been connecting smaller cities with a frequent transport service. And of course close to downtown. (And less jet fuel burned.) But these are very big and sort of abstract goals, so it's understandable that simply spending less money won (a much more concrete and short term goal).
- ghaff 8y agoYou do have security on the Chunnel. It’s probably more streamlined than flying but you still need to budget time for that and passport control.
- gok 8y agoAmsterdam to Paris is about 260 miles as the crow flies vs. around 350 for SF -> LA. By practical rail routes, it's more like 310 vs. 520.
- oceanplexian 8y agoThere's not a lot of benefit in the US. We have the most airports of any country in the world, great connectivity via air travel between our cities for fairly cheap, and the best ATC and airline safety record in the world. Airplanes are also faster (500MPH-600MPH vs 300MPH trains) and can go places where there is limited infrastructure.
- koyote 8y agoAll those things also exist in Europe. Flights are actually far cheaper in Europe than in the US. The majority of people will choose to pay a premium to take the train from London to Paris because planes are less convenient, less comfortable and ultimately slower when you factor in security checks and distance to the city centre.
- AareyBaba 8y agoI don't see any mountain ranges to cross going from Amsterdam to Paris. LA to SF on the other hand has two if you go via the central valley.
- pas 8y agoThen look at the London-Paris line, goes under the sea. No biggie. Or Paris to Milan (about 70EUR, goes through the Alps https://czech-transport.com/index.php?train=2959&lang=en https://czech-transport.com/index.php?train=2959&lang=en ) Sure, it's expensive to build, but pretty useful in the long term.
- Camillo 8y agoI don't think anybody takes the train between Paris and Milan. It takes over 7 hours, whereas you can fly in 1h30m. And flying can even be cheaper.
- pas 8y agoProbably people take it that want to go somewhere on the line. (Like Oulx for example, right at the entrance of the Fréjus tunnel in Italy.) Though good question, why then is there so many trains each day.
- Camillo 8y agoThere are only three or four, aren't there? Actually, the one that leaves Paris at 10:37 and arrives in Milan at 17:50 could be attractive. If you're traveling on a weekday, you can just work on the train.
- philwelch 8y agoAmerica hasn't done a good job of building anything big since maybe the 1960's. Apollo was the last great American engineering achievement, and the Eisenhower interstate highway system the last great American construction achievement.