

Ask HN: Rally against the high speed rail plans in CA? - michaelrhansen

Just curious since not many people I speak to even want the train. Additionally Elon Musk&#x27;s Hyperloop could be a better solution.
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aasarava
The bond for this was put before the citizens of CA to vote on. They approved.
Construction on terminals and land acquisition has begun. Seems like the time
to rally against it has passed, no?

Massive projects always take time. And in that time, there will always be new
technologies. The Space Shuttle used 1970s computing technology onboard, for
example. Does it make sense to stop each time there's a new idea?

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mchannon
There really isn't an either/or approach here. The HSR currently under
construction is designed to ferry people between moderately sized, moderately
spaced cities at a moderate pace (the fact there's a monumental price involved
in its construction is secondary). The hyperloop is designed to ferry people
between two huge cities (if you count Northridge as being LA, anyway) at a
very fast pace.

They may have spun the HSR as a superior option to flying or driving but it
has applications, particularly if you live in places like Lancaster,
Bakersfield, Merced, or Palo Alto. The hyperloop would do nothing for these
intermediate communities.

That said, I definitely prefer the hyperloop if the only criterion is cost-
effectiveness. Just because something shinier comes along (not even a test
track yet) doesn't mean we should mothball the other thing.

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palidanx
As a frequently traveler from so cal to the bay area, I'm looking forward to
an alternative to flying.

Right now what I'm actually watching is to see what happens to my local public
transportation after high speed is built.

For example, in so cal, a major hub will now be Anaheim. In the region around
Anaheim, good public transportation is not readily available.

What I'm hoping is as the trains links up, our local public transportation
will get better to the hubs to travel up to the bay. I think something like
this is important to try to get a system like BART in so cal.

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augbot
Agreed.

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augbot
I don't really care if someone down-voted my "agreed" line.. I still agree.

Do people really think it will only cost 70 billion? Ha! When was the last
time you heard of a municipal project meeting both budget and timeline?

Sure, if the Hyperloop was only few billion less than the proposed system it
wouldn't make sense at all. But 10x less? Come on! Even if the Hyperloop went
way over budget it would still be far far less than the ballpark figure of 70
billion.

