The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday in the noon hour.
QUESTION: Do you think California really needs a high-speed rail that connects San Francisco to Los Angeles?
Talk about it….
28 comments
High speed rail going to and fro the right places would be great. However in California too many people need to be paid off to make it practical. Probably doubles the price. Every study and report to get it to completion adds to the graft. Every little thiefdom gets their cut.
Probably true
IF ever finished (hope NOT).. It will Never operate without a loss…the Taxpayers will need to pay added tax amounts to support… FOREVER..
like i need a hole in my head
Nope
No No No to the Crazy Train
No. I believe Newsom’s latest estimates say it could now cost up to $128 billion, which divided by the population of California is over $3,000 per person. Not worth it. Even if it were free, all it seems to do is compete with Southwest Airlines between SF and LA. Few are interested in it’s inland route to places like Merced.
Sure, why not? After all, we can afford $5 million per person for reparations.
I’m not for the high speed rail that currently is being built. I love trains, grew up taking the train often. High speed trains in Europe is popular and it makes sense there, countries are smaller, when you get to your destination, you are usually right in the middle of a city. European bigger cities are compact, cities have public transportation that runs often and cover their cities and suburbs. In California the train is going through areas that are sparsely populated. Then when you get to LA you most likely is going to need a car to get around, they do have some public transportaion, but I don’t think it is extensive. LA is very spread out, for the most part you cannot walk to where you want to go. In European cities you can walk to many of the areas of interest that someone might want to visit.In Copenhagen the main rail station is a short walk to Tivoli Garden, the walking street with all the fashionable shops, it is close to many museums, and also the Royal theater. I think high speed train would make sense from Washington D.C. to Boston. I have taken a train from New York to Boston. Took the high speed rail from Gothenburg Sweden to Stockholm. I’m in against all high speed trains, but I don’t think it makes sense in California, especially the the one that’s being built right now. Perhaps San Francisco to Seattle would make more sense.
Isn’t I-5 the high speed road? The rail doesn’t seem to go anywhere but part of the middle that most people wouldn’t be going to anyhow.
Here is the map of the planned high speed rail. The projection is that a trip from SF to Los Angeles Union Station would take 2 hours and 40 minutes.
https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/docs/newsroom/maps/Statewide_topo.pdf
That time does Not include the drive time to get to or from a station..
Does Disneyland need a hall of Vice Presidents? Nope.
It keeps being stressed how it’s going to help the Central Valley. Somehow I just don’t see the farmers and ranchers need to commute by high-speed train between Bakersfield and Modesto. I think they’re probably going to use their pickup trucks instead
No
Right now mysterious things are happening to trains all over our country and world. What we need is a new Governor with a righteous brain between the shoulders instead of demons!
No, we do not need a “high speed” train that stops every few miles. Unless queen Nancy’s husband is still getting his big paycheck as a train expert.
The idea behind high speed train is that is does not stop at every little train station. I’m not really familiar with train stations in California, do they have to be build? Or are there some that can be used. When I took the high speed train from Gothenburg to Stockholm that train made very few stops. I grew up in Denmark in the country we had a train stations, they were reginonal trains that stopped at every little station, and they some on the route to Copenhagen only made stops at cities with more than 20.000 or so inhabitants, it was not considered a high speed train, since I didn’t run must faster than other, but because some stops were eliminated it got to it’s destination sooner. So if I wanted to catch a train from where I lived I had to wait for regional train.
There will be a high-speed rail whether the people want it or not.
It’s too much of a gold mine for the corrupt government.
It’ll be a never-ending albatross around the voter’s necks, much like Bart.
Used to be ya got what ya voted for.
Now, ya just gotta live with what they tell ya to live with.
NOPE
No. First, train would not be such high speed rail, more like sorta fast rail. Second, I cannot imagine it being inexpensive. Finally, anything managed by the state of California would be rife with waste, fraud and incompetence.
I remember years ago when they first started up with this project I sat down with my daughter
(she was still in elementary school back then) and we figured out what air fare was from Oakland to L.A. and how many round trip tickets we could buy vs the estimated cost of building the crazy train. I forget the exact number but we estimated it would buy 20 round trip tickets each, for every man, woman & child in the state of California. I wonder how many round trip air fares it would buy today? I’m sure it would still be cheaper to let the state provide free air fare for everyone than to spend all that money on the train…. quick, one of you lefty whackos out there must be keen to prove me wrong…. do the math.
And .. Since it will operate at a Loss.. That did Not include the added Tax that will be needed to keep it operating… FOREVER..
I certainly understand why anyone stuck in Bakersfield would be anxious to leave. However upon disembarking in Merced they would most likely take the next train back to Bakersfield toot sweet. Merced is a real pit; it makes Modesto look like Walnut Creek. Hardly the making of a successful train project.
We must thank Gov. Jerry Brown for his Trolley Folley to nowhere.
IF it stayed within it’s budgeted 13 Billion as first passed by the voters, we should have been riding it by now. But living in Kalifornication, it could not be finished until the cost was at least quadrupled at the taxpayers expense. It has cost the taxpayers over 128 BILLION Dollars so far and they don’t have any track laid! We voters are screwed since we cannot stop the ongoing tax dollar waste on this project.
Now the plan is to finish the project from Bakersfield to Merced. WTF Sacramento?!
Amtrak runs 5 to 6 trains daily in each direction between Emeryville and Bakersfield and most trains are at maybe 50 percent full.
You tell me how much of a financial burden this High Speed rail will be to California taxpayers once it’s completed. It”s going to be another BART!
Another BART? Well then…..that should make it easier for the homeless down south to find their way up here.
Perhaps AFTER all the bills are payed, the schools are brought back to the the quality of the seventies and the current infrastructure is repaired then we might talk about a HSRR. I doubt it will be used much.
No way… there would never be enough paying ridership to fund it… it’s a money pit… the billions spent already should have gone to more needed and noteworthy projects like more reservoirs, more water retention facilities, desal plant, deferred maintenance of roads, energy plants, etc etc.
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