U.S. High Speed Rail

[TekindusT 3,809]

HSR crossing borders between countries without a Schengen-treaty already exist: the Eurostar that uses the Channel Tunnel. Great-Britain and Ireland are not members of the Schengen area, the countries on the Continent are.

Still, with no intermediate stops (although that certainly stiffs Laredo), pre-clearing is doable, assuming you can get everyone cleared fast enough to keep the timing competitive. If airlines do it, why not rail companies can do it, provided the stations are equipped with appropriate security controls and passport checking areas?

[Duke87 1,070]

It's customs agents that do it, not airlines or railways. But yes, it's perfectly doable.

 

The benefit of pre-clearing is that if anyone is rejected, you don't need to put them on another train or plane to send them back, you can just turn them around. The downside is that with the length it takes to clear people being variable, you have to worry about delaying the train or leaving people behind if things move too slowly (as opposed to just delaying people in getting to their hotels).

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

I live in Fresno, California, where the first stage of the proposed Cal High-Speed Rail is set to begin construction, but the board keeps pushing back the date(I remember in 2010 they would say "Oh, it will start construction in 2012), and from what I hear it may not even start construction until 2016 if this opposition to it continues....

[AkemiAzula 280]

Opposition to HSR is weak and backwards and should be crushed.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Before all this guff about terrorists and customs and drug lords, I flew from Heathrow to Merignac (Bordeaux) without seeing any officials of either country.  Must have been a customs union in force at the time, and this was before the EU was even a glimmer.

[AcmeSigns 97]

Opposition to HSR is weak and backwards and should be crushed.

How do you propose such 'crushing' be accomplished?

 

By the way...I'm one of those 'backwards' types that voted against this when it came up on the ballot as being a huge waste of money. I just knew that it was destined to go over budget.

[Duke87 1,070]

In case you haven't noticed, there's basically no such thing as a major government project which is finished without going over budget. Big things always have unforeseen complications. If you oppose a project on those grounds you might as well oppose any and all public works of any sort.

 

Then you have matters of local culture. I can't speak about what it's like in California, but in New York we have major problems with contractors and their union workers intentionally finding ways to delay and complicate construction projects so they can make more money off of them.

[AcmeSigns 97]

Cost overruns are one thing. Doubling the cost to 69 billion is another. I'm betting they aren't done yet with the increases.

 

Just another example of government run amuck.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Cost overruns are one thing. Doubling the cost to 69 billion is another. I'm betting they aren't done yet with the increases.

 

Just another example of government run amuck.

Actually, these probably are not cost overruns.  Has anyone every audited the original estimates for this project then made allowances for inflation over the delay period.  If there are overruns they can probably be laid at the door of the politicians who played football with the project.

 

One of the questions to be asked by whoever oversees the budget for this fiasco is "Who is responsible for the original estimate?".  Remember, in a project of this nature, heads roll uphill.

[AkemiAzula 280]

Maybe in the future we can use robots in much the same way as slaves used to be and that should drastically reduce costs as robots dont need food and can work 24/7

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Bit of a non-sequitur there, yes?  What do robots have to do with the topic?

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Bit of a non-sequitur there, yes? What do robots have to do with the topic?

Keep labour costs down, etc. (not needing no to pay humans).

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

If the U.S. won't use nuclear power, how will anyone ever convince them to use robots?

[GrayAnderson 6]

 

Cost overruns are one thing. Doubling the cost to 69 billion is another. I'm betting they aren't done yet with the increases.

 

Just another example of government run amuck.

Actually, these probably are not cost overruns.  Has anyone every audited the original estimates for this project then made allowances for inflation over the delay period.  If there are overruns they can probably be laid at the door of the politicians who played football with the project.

 

One of the questions to be asked by whoever oversees the budget for this fiasco is "Who is responsible for the original estimate?".  Remember, in a project of this nature, heads roll uphill.

 

My understanding is that there were a lot of issues with the initial cost estimates...but also issues as the project grew, such as lots of bridges that got lengthened and tunnels that grew.  Basically, a good part of the problem is that the engineers went a bit wild.

The other issue (which sent the estimates over the moon for a while...there was a $90-odd billion estimate at one time that Gov. Brown threw out and ordered the HSR people to rework) is that the Bakersfield-LA connection was pushed back.  That part of the project, possibly the most important, should always have come first since it's actually a "missing link" in the state passenger rail system.  Add that in and you can extend the San Joaquins (the current Oakland/Sacramento-Bakersfield trains) to LA and start adding serious ridership over what you have now (namely, a bus transfer).  Given that you're talking six daily round trips now, that's probably worth at least 300,000 riders in the short term, possibly far more even if you're back to conventional rail after Bakersfield.

 

From there, just extend the HSR project towards the Bay Area in sections (or fill in any service "gaps") like the interstates were, as funding and time permit.  Even limiting yourself to 125 MPH operation for the time being (Metrolink has ordered a set of 125 MPH-capable diesel locomotives as it stands), you'd quickly start cutting time off the trip as you went along (10 minutes here, 15 minutes there...it adds up) which should drive ridership upwards and trigger additional frequencies, driving ridership further...you see where this goes.

 

What I have to wonder is if you could get at least a Palmdale/Lancaster-Bakersfield connection for the $10 billion the state has to work with in bond authorization.

[AkemiAzula 280]

It definitely sounds like a worthwhile investment. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

As California slowly turns into a desert and people realize the water is not coming back anytime soon, I suspect the population pressure in that state will be reduced considerably.  Massive CE transport projects might well be scaled back.