California Bullet Train Breaks Ground

[lpetrich]

How dare you compare Bakersfield to nowhere! It is wonderful with oil derricks on the main road, and the Barnes and Noble bookshop was impressive - half its stock religious books!

Bakersfield seems like California's version of Texas.

 

[lpetrich]

If you watch Asian news services, it is apparent that their cultures are advancing very much faster than ours here in America. Even South American countries are contracting with Japan and China for bullet trains. ...

Higher population densities make bullet trains more attractive there.

The national average doesn't count. What counts is densities over size scales of a few hundred mi/km. Consider China. Most of its high-speed lines are being built near its east coast, where the people are. There is exactly one in Xinjiang and zero in Tibet, neither o which are very populous.

HSR in the US will develop in the same way -- the lines being built where the people are. California is thus a good place, as are the East Coast and the area around Chicago. By comparison, a high-speed line through the Rocky Mountains would be folly.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

By comparison, a high-speed line through the Rocky Mountains would be folly.

Shhh, don't let them know about the Key West - Barrow subway Obama is building with FEMA slave labor.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Higher population densities make bullet trains more attractive there.

The national average doesn't count. What counts is densities over size scales of a few hundred mi/km. Consider China. Most of its high-speed lines are being built near its east coast, where the people are. There is exactly one in Xinjiang and zero in Tibet, neither o which are very populous.

HSR in the US will develop in the same way -- the lines being built where the people are. California is thus a good place, as are the East Coast and the area around Chicago. By comparison, a high-speed line through the Rocky Mountains would be folly.

California doesn't have anything like the density of where China is building their fast trains. All of California would fit in Shanghai and a few nearby cities.

 

[lpetrich]

California doesn't have anything like the density of where China is building their fast trains. All of California would fit in Shanghai and a few nearby cities.

I will concede that California is not as dense as China. But it's more comparable to Europe, like London - Paris.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

California doesn't have anything like the density of where China is building their fast trains. All of California would fit in Shanghai and a few nearby cities.

I will concede that California is not as dense as China. But it's more comparable to Europe, like London - Paris.

London-Paris is a special case--the English Channel.

 

[Togo]

Presumably part of the point is to prevent the widepsread 'parkinglot' development of southern california. A train line creates high-value municipalities along it's route, limiting urban sprawl and reducing traffic congestion.

 

[lpetrich]

I will concede that California is not as dense as China. But it's more comparable to Europe, like London - Paris.

London-Paris is a special case--the English Channel.

That's not my point. My point is that London and Paris have populations and distance between them roughly comparable to Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.

 

[maxparrish]

Higher population densities make bullet trains more attractive there.

The national average doesn't count. What counts is densities over size scales of a few hundred mi/km. Consider China. Most of its high-speed lines are being built near its east coast, where the people are. There is exactly one in Xinjiang and zero in Tibet, neither o which are very populous.

HSR in the US will develop in the same way -- the lines being built where the people are. California is thus a good place, as are the East Coast and the area around Chicago. By comparison, a high-speed line through the Rocky Mountains would be folly.

The folly, as repeatedly demonstrated, is in building lines where few people would use them. Only the NE Corridor comes close to qualifying as a potential, but as yet unproven, route.