While I have no fondness for overly-rosy projections, the fact is that the challenges of getting across the Tehachapis were well understood, at least by those paying attention and indeed those developing the project. That section really should have been built early, but the EIS is approved now; just a matter of money. As with Switzerland's massively expensive and highly successful rail tunnel program.
The cost overruns so far are largely due to a crooked contractor; lack of expertise in-house meant that Tutor Perini scammed the HSR Authority on the first contract; they wised up and hired better contractors for the later contracts. Lack of in-house expertise and being scammed by contractors is a recurring problem in US passenger rail construction. Which has nothing to do with people who draw lines on maps.
And I'll warn you: Ralph Vartabedian at the LA Times is not an honest reporter, and deliberately misleads about a lot of stuff, including numbers. Normally costs are quoted in "current year" dollars; a ridiculous amount of the supposed increase in price is due to a shady change where they're being quoted in "estimated year of expenditure dollars based on estimated future inflation", which is basically just a way of making the costs look larger. Vartabedian doesn't mention this, because of *course* he doesn't; his articles have been consistently misleading. They're misleading on a lot of other points too.
And perhaps that is the biggest reason we don't build high-speed rail in this country; it's the only country with an active anti-rail disinformation campaign.
Dilan, thank you for the insightful writing. Musk cited his dislike for the superlatives attached to the San Francisco to LA line (slowest, most expensive per mile high speed line) as his reason for bringing about hyperloop. Where would Hyperloop fit in this discussion?
While I have no fondness for overly-rosy projections, the fact is that the challenges of getting across the Tehachapis were well understood, at least by those paying attention and indeed those developing the project. That section really should have been built early, but the EIS is approved now; just a matter of money. As with Switzerland's massively expensive and highly successful rail tunnel program.
The cost overruns so far are largely due to a crooked contractor; lack of expertise in-house meant that Tutor Perini scammed the HSR Authority on the first contract; they wised up and hired better contractors for the later contracts. Lack of in-house expertise and being scammed by contractors is a recurring problem in US passenger rail construction. Which has nothing to do with people who draw lines on maps.
And I'll warn you: Ralph Vartabedian at the LA Times is not an honest reporter, and deliberately misleads about a lot of stuff, including numbers. Normally costs are quoted in "current year" dollars; a ridiculous amount of the supposed increase in price is due to a shady change where they're being quoted in "estimated year of expenditure dollars based on estimated future inflation", which is basically just a way of making the costs look larger. Vartabedian doesn't mention this, because of *course* he doesn't; his articles have been consistently misleading. They're misleading on a lot of other points too.
And perhaps that is the biggest reason we don't build high-speed rail in this country; it's the only country with an active anti-rail disinformation campaign.
Dilan, thank you for the insightful writing. Musk cited his dislike for the superlatives attached to the San Francisco to LA line (slowest, most expensive per mile high speed line) as his reason for bringing about hyperloop. Where would Hyperloop fit in this discussion?
As a voter, I rely heavily on newspaper voting guides, since there often seems to be little other analysis.
At the time, the LA Times, SF Chronicle, and SJ Mercury were all in favor. Sac Bee was against. https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_1A,_High-Speed_Rail_Bond_Measure_(2008)#Media_editorials
I started this thinking it was something else that I would hate and ended with deep respect for it.