Hopefully the implementation is done in a well and thoughtful way, such as connected stations in city centers and outskirt towns.
It would also be nice to see these stations interconnected with transit hubs such as subways/trams/buses, and have a pedestrian orientation focus with cycle infrastructure included.
It would be a shame to see these station built outside of walking distance of any surrounding communities in the middle of nowhere with a carpark all around. Something similar to a Walmart Supercenter parking lot.
You can see on the California government website where the current plan is to integrate with each part of the city. Many of the bigger population centres will have stations right at (what sound like to me as) major transit hubs. Unfortunately, the 2030 target is for operation between Bakersfield - Madera, so the parts around SF and LA will still take a bit longer than that.
I can understand your skepticism, but you may be slightly misinformed. High speed rail corridors don’t pop up overnight, and they take longer if you want it to be built as economically, safe, and well-thought out as possible. For this project we are about 15 years after voters approved the idea 2008, so that part is true as you say. So planning is done to get the most efficient and effective path which takes years, consulting the public takes years, building it takes more years, then testing and commissioning is the cherry on top. The American idea of “I can do this all by myself without any European/Asian help” is certainly slowing things down and making it expensive as well. Due to inflation the costs also will rise but so will the cost of any alternative be it maintaining highway systems, managing traffic and pollution.
Separate infrastructure and operations. Nationalize the infrastructure, allow private companies to pay to operate over it, but place limits on things like train length and require regular inspection of the rolling stock using the national infrastructure. Basically, adopt an infrastructure & regulation system similar to that trucks operate under.
Perfect! Just like the interstate highway system, one of the smartest and most successful initiatives in American history. And like the interstates, this is a solid investment of our tax dollars.
Let the private operators fight over pricing, both for commercial and private use. That’s a win for everyone, and the environment.
If I could hop a train to New Orleans and just chill for a few hours, I sure as hell wouldn’t drive. People like me could move around, stimulating economies far from home. That in turn would drive cities to invest in infrastructure, give people a reason to visit.
same as the interstate highway. federally owned alignments, rails, signals, etc enable private operators to offer transport services based out of private yards
Nationalize all of it, or let the unions purchase the companies.
When Conrail was up for sale, initially the only viable bid came from the employees’ union of Conrail. Liddy Dole rejected it out of hand for that reason. Years later it was sold to a group of proper capitalists.
Big congratulations to them! It’s a very impressive accomplishment for a sprawling network with a long legacy.
(Edited to add): The US could honestly do big things like this too if they actually valued their railroad network as a matter of national security like they did with highways.
I was in Europe on their rail and we rode from Switzerland to Rome in a day. Albeit a bit long, 8 hours, but when we got off we realized that entire trip was the same distance as Denver to Seattle, a flight we frequently take.
Flying takes us about 3.5 hours plus security, waiting, travel to and from the airport. Plus then sitting on a cramped plane with very little service.
I wish I could take 2 more hours and have an enjoyable ride like the rail they have over there.
I was figuring 8 hours to be a bit long and i just checked: all connections from zurich to rome go via the gotthard scenic route, and not through the tunnel. I thought the gotthard was open again for passenger rail after the big derailment they had, apparently not. While the scenic route is very nice indeed, the tunnel could shave off a solid hour of travel time.
As much as the praising of Precision Scheduled Railroading is annoying to me and reads like a pacifier for money-hungry shareholders, the promise of putting safety back to the top of the priority list and putting more rail and transportation experience into management seems good.
They’re full of shit. It’s a short-term boost to stock price via slashed operational costs. They’ll bail as soon as the momentum starts to derail. Improving safety doesn’t start with reducing maintenance resources. Precision railroading is a scam that investors buy into because it sounds good on paper, but keeps proving to be a disaster when all the minor shortcomings stack up into a collapse of performance - every sick day, every repair delay will cause a larger ripple than before. Safety isn’t lucrative in the short timeline of a pump and dump.
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