that only travels in one state, California. What about the other 47 states, nobody want to get to them in a hurry? Didn't it start out at $35billion or somewhere near there? Now the proposal as ballooned to damn near $100billion and they're going on through with it! Aren't we broke? Hold up, and it doesn't include San Diego, which according to Amtrak SD to LA is the second busiest line in the country, after NY to Wash. DC, I'm stunned, I'm shocked. Okay maybe there is some sense in it I don't understand. Is keeping up with China this way that serious? I mean it's frikkin' China, they're moving a lot of folks over a large area area, aren't they? Anybody care to explain? Folks complaining about a $2.5billion rover that's going all the way to Mars. Anaheim to SF, seriously? I'm ready to start posting pictures of all these damned potholes and cracked raggedy streets, including freeway on/off ramps (which are the frikkin' States responsibility), oh yeah, SD off the list, is it due to our raggedy potholes?

I live in northern California and I agree,this is such a waste of money

really?!

Bullet train!

What's it called?

Bullet Train!

Once again!

BULLET TRAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!!!

Seattle has bad public transit. Fortunately you can easily walk around from one end to the next to get to the spots that you want to go. We have buses-no subway.

It's really sad isn't it... I live in NoCal and I would LOVE to see a rail network built like what they've had in Europe for the last 30 years but politicians, greedy developers and stubborn communities ARE ALL complicit in making this another money-sucking boondoggle... In a case like this I feel we NEED the government to get their heads outta their asses, do some hardcore bidding and then ENFORCE the terms of the contract...

A good example of contracting done right was that guy who fixed a burned out span of 580 on time and under budget... that should be the LAW OF THE LAND!!

580 Collapse & Repair

I should say that we (Seattle) have a small regional train (light rail) That has been around a few years-but it is VERY limited. Portland, Or has more light rail.

That's $98 BILLION with a 'B' right????

Oh yeah with a 'B'.

http://topics.nytimes.com...index.html

Okay, 100,000 jobs would be nice but wouldn't that just bring more folks to the state that need work, and I'm talking from all over, Iowa too. We need the businesses to come back I get that. I can't do the math on this one. But now I'm wondering, is it really possible for California to split, since Orange County and San Diego are left off the line. I mean :spooky: .

morningsong said:

Oh yeah with a 'B'.

California plans to build a 520-mile high-speed rail line from Los Angeles to San Francisco. And they are doing it in the face of what might seem like insurmountable political and fiscal obstacles. A state report in November 2011 projected the cost of the bullet train tripling to $98 billion for a project that would not be finished until 2033. Republicans in Congress are close to eliminating federal high-speed rail financing this year. And there are questions about how much the state or private businesses will be able to contribute.

Gov. Jerry Brown has enthusiastically embraced the plan and the California High-Speed Rail Authority has projected that the bullet train would create 100,000 jobs. The authority has proposed that the project be built in phases, and that no phase be started until all the financing was in place. Yet there is widespread skepticism that the train would ever attract the promised ridership, in no small part because unlike, say, the Amtrak Northeast Corridor, the bullet train would go into cities that do not have particularly extensive public transit networks, forcing people to rent cars once they arrive.

Elsewhere, an ambitious rail rollout in China is helping integrate the economy of a sprawling, populous nation. Work crews of as many as 100,000 people per line have built about half of the 12,000-mile network in just six years, in many cases ahead of schedule — including a Beijing-to-Shanghai line that was not originally expected to open until 2012. The entire system is on course to be completed by 2020.

But a collision on a high-speed rail line in eastern China in July 2011 that killed 39 people and injured 210 others has raised fresh doubts about the safety of one of the largest, most expensive public works projects ever undertaken.

http://topics.nytimes.com...index.html

Okay, 100,000 jobs would be nice but wouldn't that just bring more folks to the state that need work, and I'm talking from all over, Iowa too. We need the businesses to come back I get that. I can't do the math on this one. But now I'm wondering, is it really possible for California to split, since Orange County and San Diego are left off the line. I mean :spooky: .

I don't know what to say.

That's a HELL of alot of money.