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This was a project that was never needed. High speed rail make sense in corridors that have a large number of big population centers that are just far enough wh

This was a project that was never needed. High speed rail make sense in corridors that have a large number of big population centers that are just far enough where driving is not a great solution and flights are inefficient to move large number of people around. Europe, Japan, American North East etc. There’s not a whole lot between LA and the Bay Area, and people didn’t need the train when flights work. It’s the same kind of feasibility study that put a multi billion dollar transit terminal in the middle of San Francisco, that is not connected to all major transit operations that exist in the city

anon291 3y ago
> multi billion dollar transit terminal in the middle of San Francisco, that is not connected to all major transit operations that exist in the city Are you talking about Caltrain? Caltrain is highly used.
- schoen 3y ago
  Probably the Salesforce Transit Center. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transbay_Transit_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transbay_Transit_Center It's a somewhat shiny bus terminal near downtown San Francisco which is now actually used a lot (though it would have been used a lot more if not for COVID and work-from-home). It has a basement level prepared for the California High-Speed Rail (the original subject of the article we're discussing) but it doesn't connect to Caltrain, BART, or Muni Metro, although the latter two are a relatively short walk away.
  - anon291 3y ago
    Oh right that was being built just as I left sf shortly before COVID (unrelated).
ulfw 3y ago
> High speed rail make sense in corridors that have a large number of big population centers that are just far enough where driving is not a great solution so exactly SF Bay Area (7.5 MM people) to LA Area (13.5 MM people). Distance 350 miles or 560km. 1 hr flight is inefficient with starts/landing/checkin/checkout/TSA/infrastructure costs/getting in and out of airports etc Proper high speed rail like Shinkansen could do it in 2-2.5 hours easily. (same distance as Tokyo to Osaka, which is the OLDEST Shinkansen line)
danielhep 3y ago
You're describing Barcelona to Madrid, which is now one of the busiest rail corridors in Europe and is eating demand for flights between the cities (previously the busiest flight corridor in Europe).

anon291 3y ago

> multi billion dollar transit terminal in the middle of San Francisco, that is not connected to all major transit operations that exist in the city Are you talking about Caltrain? Caltrain is highly used.

schoen 3y ago
Probably the Salesforce Transit Center. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transbay_Transit_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transbay_Transit_Center It's a somewhat shiny bus terminal near downtown San Francisco which is now actually used a lot (though it would have been used a lot more if not for COVID and work-from-home). It has a basement level prepared for the California High-Speed Rail (the original subject of the article we're discussing) but it doesn't connect to Caltrain, BART, or Muni Metro, although the latter two are a relatively short walk away.
- anon291 3y ago
  Oh right that was being built just as I left sf shortly before COVID (unrelated).

ulfw 3y ago

> High speed rail make sense in corridors that have a large number of big population centers that are just far enough where driving is not a great solution so exactly SF Bay Area (7.5 MM people) to LA Area (13.5 MM people). Distance 350 miles or 560km. 1 hr flight is inefficient with starts/landing/checkin/checkout/TSA/infrastructure costs/getting in and out of airports etc Proper high speed rail like Shinkansen could do it in 2-2.5 hours easily. (same distance as Tokyo to Osaka, which is the OLDEST Shinkansen line)

danielhep 3y ago

You're describing Barcelona to Madrid, which is now one of the busiest rail corridors in Europe and is eating demand for flights between the cities (previously the busiest flight corridor in Europe).