California High speed rail (authority, light rail, money)

[Stevie30]

I don't think many people would wanna drive all the way to Victorville to hop on a train heading to Vegas.

California should be more concerned about connecting all of our major urban areas with high speed rail before linking with other states and other parts of the country.

High speed rail will be beneficial in the future,especially with California's growing population,so we all gotta get the ball rolling if we want this to ever become a reality.

Originally Posted by Donn2390

There has also been a lot of talk for a privately built Hi Speed Rail from victorville to Las Vegas.
http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-trw-lvtrain19mar19http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_train21.40167f6.html (broken link)
Prof's Las Vegas News Blog: $3 billion train proposed linking Victorville, Calif. and Las Vegas Archives

This won't do much for you wanting to get from Bakersfield to Fresno, but it would do wonders for the masses traveling from OC and LA to Vegas

[centralcali19]

For the Central California section of the rail system, Hanford is the top choice IF they choose to put a station between fresno and Bakersfield. Hanford is a more cheaper option than the Visalia/Tulare station.

Kings/Tulare Counties- 2020- 1.2 million residents..

[Huckleberry3911948]

america need infrastructure. rugged individualism is not working. time for marlboro man to put out the cigarette
get off the horse and lend a good country hand to his brother.

[MWJamesLDS]

So, kind of restarting an old post, but this has been in the news again the last few days. It sounds like its a for sure go on the Nov ballot. I think as gas prices continue to rise people are going to be more interested in it. I'm kind of interested on how this could affect the economy of the central valley. It's nice that the route is planned to essentially follow the 99, where all the people are, VS the coast where there's the money.
Does anyone else think this could at the very least increase housing prices in the valley?? I notice the trip from Fresno (one of the lowest paid avg Salary in the state) to San Jose (highest paid salary in the state) is about an hour. I don't know about some of you out there, but for me, that's not such a bad commute, especially when your not driving. I know round trip would be about $60 according to the HSR sight, but that could be worth it. I was looking at starting wages for a Registered Nurse. In the Fresno area its $30-$35hr, ($34 in Visalia) In San Jose its $45-50hr, could easily be more. Than Means in Fresno you make $420 gross for a 12hr day, in San jose that's $600 for 12hr shift, minus $60 for the commute, you still come out $120 a day ahead. Plus currently cost of living in Fresno is over 1/2 that of San Jose. For those of us that don't mind the central valley, that could be one hell of a boost of living. I'm thinking if that ballot passes, I need to invest in some Forclosures or something... anyway, just my 2 cents.

[sav858]

I've thought about that too. I just hope it doesn't encourage more ugly, unsustainable sprawl that dots the valley right now.

[Zapparulez]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

america need infrastructure. rugged individualism is not working. time for marlboro man to put out the cigarette
get off the horse and lend a good country hand to his brother.

I beg to differ sur.

I didn't vote for Ron Paul in Fedruary and also against every single incumbent in office in the past election to have some hippies tell me I need to be part of their groupthink mentality. I want the government to leave me the hell alone...PERIOD. We are overregulated, overtaxed, and enough is enough!

[ZhugeLiang]

High speed rail is something that CA should have done 30 years ago, utterly disgraceful that we've waited until 2008, but I digress.

First off, hopefully it will be truly "high-speed" and not that ancient, rickety steel on steel rail that they're pushing out here in Hawaii.
Also, I hope that greyed in portion of routes into OC is a planned future route. Seems completely irrational to cut OC out of the planning.

[ZhugeLiang]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

Sorry, but I don't buy happytalk from a government web site promoting it. The taxpayer has been sold a bill of goods too many times in the past and gotten screwed in the end. If the long history of government ineptitude is any guide, this project will cost 3x as much, take 4x as long to build, serve half as many cities, and will be a giant white elephant when gas prices go down.

So what knock it out of the park ideas are you proposing?

Yes, it's "gub-ment" work where inefficency is a way of life. CA literaly cannot afford to go on with the status quo. Would you like everywhere to resemble L.A.? That's where CA is headed. More roads would merely be a band-aid. Six lane freeways jam up as it is, do you think a seventh lane is going to do squat?

Why should one's only options for travel be overpriced flights and long road trips?

And when this project is done, they can build a city rail system in L.A.

[kettlepot]

The California legislature is notorious for putting real stinkers on the ballot that desperately need to be voted down. However, this is one project that I think I could support. I've lived in the northeast and was very pleased with the extensive commuter rail network surrounding NYC and that still exists all along the BosWash corridor. The subways within NYC are extensive if rather foul, but the Metro subway in DC was glorious. In recent decades all sorts of high density housing or work sites have clustered around the stations that were built in the DC area. In time that will happen with rail hubs in California. It will take 20, 30, 40 years, but eventually, as the people keep coming, the development will occur to support the rail system - somewhat.

Another thing to consider is that the smooth transport of workers to jobs is important to the overall economic vitality of region. Otherwise, the gridlock simply forces employers, workers, and the economic base out of an area or state.

[NorthernCalifornia]

Originally Posted by ZhugeLiang

High speed rail is something that CA should have done 30 years ago, utterly disgraceful that we've waited until 2008, but I digress.

First off, hopefully it will be truly "high-speed" and not that ancient, rickety steel on steel rail that they're pushing out here in Hawaii.
Also, I hope that greyed in portion of routes into OC is a planned future route. Seems completely irrational to cut OC out of the planning.

Hawaii doesn't have much use for high-speed rail.