
Help wanted: CEO for CA high speed rail project. High pay, sleepless nights - Mz
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-bullet-train-executive-20170602-story.html
======
randyrand
I feel like more international airports in SF and LA would be much more
useful. More locations to touch-down in, less crowded airports.

Getting from LA to SF is already quite easy travel wise - a 1 hr flight. It's
getting to and from the airport and how crowded they are that's most annoying.
More airports would help solve both of those.

~~~
whyenot
There aren't a lot of good places to put them, at least in the Bay Area.

~~~
mchannon
Concord has an airport that used to have daily nonstops. A plane crash into a
mall and assorted NIMBY's have closed it to daily scheduled commercial
traffic, but it's still perfectly capable.

Watsonville has an airport with plenty of room to better serve south bay and
Santa Cruz.

Moffett, of course.

Even San Carlos has an airport with a fair amount of general aviation traffic.

Hayward Executive always looms when I fly into Oakland- it looks more than big
enough.

Livermore, Novato, Palo Alto (busiest general aviation airport in the
country), the list goes on.

Frankly just getting Concord back into the act would be tremendously
difficult. My definition of "good places" differs somewhat from those in
power, but that may slowly be changing.

~~~
acchow
All of your suggestions are further from San Francisco than SFO is...

~~~
randyrand
It would still make SFO less crowded.

~~~
acchow
What part of SFO crowds makes SF<->LA slow? I've always sped through security
in 15 minutes at any time of day. Surely there must be security clearance time
data available somewhere.

~~~
mchannon
When SF fogs in (which is far more often than you'd expect), they close a
runway.

As a result, you experience crowding in SF even before your SF-bound plane
leaves the gate or takes off due to air traffic control ground holds. Epic
delays then cascade through the rest of the air traffic system, delaying
wherever that plane was supposed to go next.

This could all be alleviated if they moved one their runways further apart. I
get that NIMBY's won't let them fill in more of the bay to achieve this (c'mon
guys, what's another 40 feet or so?). What I don't get is how it doesn't seem
to occur to anyone to move the terminal and gate structures back "west" to
make this space. After substantial renovations on Terminals 1 and 2 for what
is still mostly a ranch-style airport, you'd figure they could do something to
free up some space.

And don't get me started on SF's slowmobile, taking you to the rental car
center in 10 minutes or more.

------
kilroy123
I really don't get this project. The math just doesn't add up.

It's going to cost ~$67 billion dollars and there are ~39 million people in
California.

~~~
Gibbon1
Pretty easy actually.

$67 billion /39 million people / 30 years => $57/year-person.

or

1.5 million trips per day X 365days/year X 30 years => 15.4 billion trips.

$67 billion / 15.4 billion trips => $4 trip

~~~
pkaye
Then why does BART rides from Oakland to SFO cost $10.

------
TheAmericanWay
[http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/editorials/article154096449...](http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/editorials/article154096449.html).
The above link takes you the Fresno Bee editorial board's justification to
continue building moonbeam's legacy with total disregard for the California
taxpayer accountability from our executive and our legislative areas of
government. What is even more troubling is that the editorial board believes
there is tons of money in the California and Federal Treasuries. Last check,
CA has a total debt obligation funded and unfunded climbing past $1.3 TRILLION
DOLLARS. And now these esteemed supposedly (?) business board types think that
addition of $300 to $500 billion or more to the state debt is a solid move.
First off we are talking about 1800’s technology in the 21st century.
Furthermore, no one is talking about the pending $400 billion-dollar
healthcare debacle coming our way and again, I repeat, there is no money in
the bank to fund even this liberal dufus disaster. Then, of course, we have
BART with 4-janitors who have collected over 1/2 million dollars in overtime
last year. I think the editorial board needs to go back and write an editorial
that requires competence and fiscal acumen from these two groups. On then
would a totally prefunded project get the green light.

------
ZanyProgrammer
They can't even get interoperability with Caltrain settled out, and building
miles of useless track in the Central Valley is all they've done so far (from
what I remember, could be wrong there).

------
yadongwen
Just curious..if China could help build it with half cost and half time, would
CA accept? If not, why?

~~~
mozumder
Kinda amazing that the Chinese could help build our railroads again...

~~~
koolba
We'll technology does tend to be cyclical.

~~~
severine
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Chinese_Americans#T...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Chinese_Americans#Transcontinental_railroad)

------
madebysquares
Can't Elon just dig a tunnel for them at half the price.

------
rayiner
We're like the Yahoo of countries.

~~~
acchow
Based off our inability to build infrastructure?

Boeing still builds a ton of airplanes in America. Tesla is founded and
manufactured in America. In 20 years we've created the empires of iPhone,
Google and Facebook.

Wasn't CRISPR discovered in America as well?

~~~
rayiner
I'm more referring to the dysfunction of our government and institutions. But
in a democracy, dysfunctional government is a manifestation of dysfunction in
the people.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _In a democracy, dysfunctional government is a manifestation of lack of
> virtue in the people_

Or...just a reflection of _bona fide_ disagreements? I prefer a gridlocked
government to one that rams its will over the minority. That might be termed
"dysfunctional" by some, but not by me. Not every value system needs the state
to be efficient all the time.

Note that the California High-Speed Rail project has never been approved by
more than a slim majority of Californians [1].

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_High-
Speed_Rail#Pub...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_High-
Speed_Rail#Public_opinion_and_peer_review)

~~~
rayiner
I don't really care if we build something or not in California. I'm more
concerned about the fact that we've lost the basic consensus and cultural
cohesion necessary to have a functioning civilization. Our inability to agree
on anything leads us to "worst of both worlds" solutions.

------
atarian
Would love to see Elon Musk take over and build the Hyperloop.

~~~
mozumder
I'd much rather see a spacious and quiet HSR than a cramped Hyperloop.

------
kermittd
So Elon Musk is running a 4th, 5th organization now?

------
marze
Money down the toilet. It will never be finished.

In ten years, ubiquitous communication and virtual presence will seriously
impact business travel demand.

~~~
kryptiskt
I first heard that in the 80s. I'm not holding my breath.

