[Bruff]

Originally Posted by logline

The train will not terminate at Victorville!

The RJ has it running "...between Las Vegas and Victorville and Palmdale, and to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles."
Got it?

[Bruff]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

I would ride it every time I go to Victorville.

Best answer yet!

[Cold Warrior]

So many are fascinated by 19th century technology. Could this be a steampunk movement?

[Bruff]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

So many are fascinated by 19th century technology. Could this be a steampunk movement?

Good point, Warrior. With Vegas at the forefront of new transportation alternatives (Google's driverless car, HyperLoop, Faraday Future, for starters), one has to wonder why anyone in their right mind would want to chose 19 century technology that not only is so useless that it can't climb a hill, it's prohibitively expensive. Especially when there are only two half days (Friday aft to Vegas, Sunday aft from Vegas) that it would come anywhere near capacity. No wonder the Chinese pulled the plug. No wonder why XcuseWest won't release their ridership report.

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by Bruff

The RJ has it running "...between Las Vegas and Victorville and Palmdale, and to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles."
Got it?

Everything we've heard up to now in the last 20 or 30 years is that it would terminate in Victorville, then you would hitchhike or something to Palmdale to get another train to Los Angalezz.

[Irish4evr]

The first time I every heard about that "train" was in 1983...was even introduced to one of the dreamer/developers...Thirty-three years ago...and considering where I was at that point in my life for him to be wasting his time with me...I sensed it might be a long wait !

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by logline

I don't know how many times I have to type this until it sinks in. I say this every time this topic comes up: the train will not terminate at Victorville!

There are ...or at least there were...two versions. One was the Harry Reid high speed deal that ran between Las Vegas and Victorville only, where you would have to make it on your own to Palmdale to go down into LA. The other was a slow speed train that ran all the way to LA because high speed trains can't make it across Cajon Pass (no cajones). Since Harry is no longer in the Senate, who knows if he'll still be making millions on the deal. But everyone was betting on Harry's project. That one has only been going on for about 25 years.

In the 70s they tried to save the UPRR by putting a train station at the backdoor of the (then: Union) Plaza Hotel. Nobody rode it. So the slow speed train is not going anywhere. If they could put a fast speed train beyond Victorville, maybe it would make it. But I understand it would still require somehow getting to Palmdale to transfer to a train to Los Angeles.

I've often wondered why they don't just make the high speed train go straight from here to Palmdale. Nobody will ever take a train to Victorville anyway. Except for this lovesick puppy who sings:

I've got a girl n Victorville
She won't kiss me
But her sister will.

[Bruff]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

I've often wondered why they don't just make the high speed train go straight from here to Palmdale. Nobody will ever take a train to Victorville anyway.

XcuseWest has its trainwreck now running to Palmdale (total cost, $12B) where it will connect to LA via the equally challenged Cal HS system. Can't wait for that ridership and revenue study which, for some reason, never appears. I wonder why.

[oeccscclhjhn]

California's bullet train (and biggest boondoggle) is over budget by billions 1-20-2018

It’s billions of dollars over budget and seven years behind schedule, and appears to have no plausible way of living up to its goal of getting riders across the state in three hours or less.

Welcome to what’s arguably the nation’s largest infrastructure project and California’s biggest boondoggle.

The highly hyped bullet train has been a challenge from the start. No one thought it would be technically, financially and politically easy, but the way the project has been mishandled has some Californians fed up and demanding answers.
Just this week, the California High-Speed Rail Authority, the organization charged with overseeing construction, reported that the cost of the first segment had dramatically risen – again.

“The worst-case scenario has happened,” admitted Roy Hill, lead consultant on the project.

Since its start, this hot-mess express of a project has been plagued by delays and has blown through every single budget estimate imaginable. And it’ll likely cost the state and taxpayers more in the coming months and years.

- - -

This week’s updated cost estimate -- to complete just the first phase - a 119-mile segment in the Central Valley - has ballooned to $10.6 billion. That’s a jaw-dropping 77 percent increase from initial estimates, 36 percent higher than forecasts from a year ago.

[Tek_Freek]

Graft