4 ms·

But you wouldn’t spend tens of billions of dollars to connect cities of that size in other states. I don’t think the plan would have been approved by voted if t

But you wouldn’t spend tens of billions of dollars to connect cities of that size in other states. I don’t think the plan would have been approved by voted if they expected the project would stop there.

DoreenMichele 6y ago
It's incredibly expensive and challenging to put rail routes through dense urban areas. I actually did a fair amount of research on rail stuff when I was a college student hoping to become an urban planner. I wrote an alternate rail plan for Solano County, California as a student.* So I'm not just talking out my ass here. No did I suggest that they would have created high speed rail just for that area if it weren't intended to then go on to SF and LA. But when I was homeless in Fresno, I was already reading articles about the project and I think they were already doing some of the work at that point. So I've actually read a reasonable number of articles about this project as well. I think it makes sense to do the middle section first. Work out some of the bugs in a relatively low cost leg of the project and then try to connect it to the more dense parts of the state after the "easy" section of track is successfully up and running. It's a test drive for the project to prove the concept and make it more feasible to complete the more challenging sections, basically. * https://solanorail.blogspot.com/ https://solanorail.blogspot.com/
- Gibbon1 6y ago
  Thing that a lot of people here don't realize because of course they don't read any of the actual planning documents. Just articles someone at the LA times is getting kickbacks to write. Some of the extra cost of the middle segment is for grade separation projects for the existing freight rail lines. Which is why it runs next to the frieght rail lines. The new overpasses cross both the fright rail line and the high speed rail line. Two birds one stone.
  - DoreenMichele 6y ago
    Thank you for that. I wasn't aware of that. I haven't kept up with the details since leaving California.
    - Gibbon1 6y ago
      When you roll it over the rail lines are on the east side of the central valley is because that's where the farming is because there is water. The west side being in a rain shadow. So that's also where all the popultion is as well. You could make an argument that the big mistake was running I5 along the west side of the valley instead of just improving HW99. A tell is 70 years after they built it there is still dick all nothing between Sacramento and LA.
      - DoreenMichele 6y ago
        I'm not really sure I understand anything you are saying. Fresno only gets 11 inches of rain a year and there's a lot of farming around there. Fresno County also has an amazingly rich history of water development, both technologically and in terms of hashing out state laws for water rights. California uses two different and competing standards with different historical roots. They use both the standard of "first come, first served" and also the idea that you can't just completely screw people over down river. Most water in California is shipped in. Fresno County has more water security than most parts of the state and its rich history of water development means that in some years, it is actually raising the local water level while most of the US is draining underground aquifers that will never recover from it, resulting in land subsidence. I considered remaining in Fresno permanently if only because of climate change and the expectation that water is what future wars will be fought over. Fresno has better water security than most of the state, and not due to rain. It's also like closing in on 3am here and maybe I should shut up and get off the internet. (shrug) Edit: Some old comment by me about books I have read about water in Cali that anyone into water in Cali might enjoy: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19782650 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19782650

DoreenMichele 6y ago

It's incredibly expensive and challenging to put rail routes through dense urban areas. I actually did a fair amount of research on rail stuff when I was a college student hoping to become an urban planner. I wrote an alternate rail plan for Solano County, California as a student.* So I'm not just talking out my ass here. No did I suggest that they would have created high speed rail just for that area if it weren't intended to then go on to SF and LA. But when I was homeless in Fresno, I was already reading articles about the project and I think they were already doing some of the work at that point. So I've actually read a reasonable number of articles about this project as well. I think it makes sense to do the middle section first. Work out some of the bugs in a relatively low cost leg of the project and then try to connect it to the more dense parts of the state after the "easy" section of track is successfully up and running. It's a test drive for the project to prove the concept and make it more feasible to complete the more challenging sections, basically. * https://solanorail.blogspot.com/ https://solanorail.blogspot.com/

Gibbon1 6y ago
Thing that a lot of people here don't realize because of course they don't read any of the actual planning documents. Just articles someone at the LA times is getting kickbacks to write. Some of the extra cost of the middle segment is for grade separation projects for the existing freight rail lines. Which is why it runs next to the frieght rail lines. The new overpasses cross both the fright rail line and the high speed rail line. Two birds one stone.
- DoreenMichele 6y ago
  Thank you for that. I wasn't aware of that. I haven't kept up with the details since leaving California.
  - Gibbon1 6y ago
    When you roll it over the rail lines are on the east side of the central valley is because that's where the farming is because there is water. The west side being in a rain shadow. So that's also where all the popultion is as well. You could make an argument that the big mistake was running I5 along the west side of the valley instead of just improving HW99. A tell is 70 years after they built it there is still dick all nothing between Sacramento and LA.
    - DoreenMichele 6y ago
      I'm not really sure I understand anything you are saying. Fresno only gets 11 inches of rain a year and there's a lot of farming around there. Fresno County also has an amazingly rich history of water development, both technologically and in terms of hashing out state laws for water rights. California uses two different and competing standards with different historical roots. They use both the standard of "first come, first served" and also the idea that you can't just completely screw people over down river. Most water in California is shipped in. Fresno County has more water security than most parts of the state and its rich history of water development means that in some years, it is actually raising the local water level while most of the US is draining underground aquifers that will never recover from it, resulting in land subsidence. I considered remaining in Fresno permanently if only because of climate change and the expectation that water is what future wars will be fought over. Fresno has better water security than most of the state, and not due to rain. It's also like closing in on 3am here and maybe I should shut up and get off the internet. (shrug) Edit: Some old comment by me about books I have read about water in Cali that anyone into water in Cali might enjoy: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19782650 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19782650