California’s ‘crazy train’ is still going nowhere fast

washingtonpost.com

6 points·rr888··6 comments

There is something about this story that reminds me of high-budget, high-stakes software projects, that try to go too far beyond what's been done before, and end up inevitably way over budget and way late, if they ever complete at all.

I love travelling around Europe on a train but Western USA really isn't built for it, the geography nor the lifestyle.

There's nothing about this particular route (SF to LA) that would preclude a high speed train.

The mistakes were: capitulating to interests whose use of the system will be small and negatively affects the majority of riders, and the belief that anybody will ever be able to get a train from San Jose to SF in less than half an hour.

what does getting a train from SJ to SF have anything to do with high speed rail between SF and LA ?

take a look at the route- it goes on the same track as Caltrain, which moves far slower- in a densely populated area that cannot accomodate additional track.

Not sure I agree. The west coast has large metro areas not too far from each other (SF/LA, Seattle/Portland/Vancouver), lots of sparsely-populated land in between, a bit of an adventuring spirit, and a relatively laid-back culture. These seem like a good fit for trains. And they aren’t even going through the mountainous regions

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