
California bullet train plan likely to run out of money before completion - ilamont
https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-bullet-plan-challenges-20190303-story.html
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rayiner
California HSR was a bad idea from the outset, and it failed for the reason
people said it would fail. That failure only reinforces why “we can’t have
nice things” in the US (our governments are incompetent).

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yostrovs
Incompetence is certainly a part of it, along with graft, but the train really
is something that nobody misses. Going from SF to LA is cheap, fast and easy
now. Plus the geography and environmental regulations that pump billions into
lawyer pockets that one has to meet doesn't help competing against the
airplane.

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baroffoos
>but the train really is something that nobody misses.

Clearly you have never been on a decent train. Its massively preferable to
driving.

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alkibiades
i take the plane in this route about once a month and it’s super fast, cheap
and easy. not convinced train would be that much of an improvement.

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bnegreve
Trains are much easier to board. You can arrive two minutes before departure
and take your seat without having to queue or wait.

A two hours train trip is generally much shorter than a one hour plane trip.

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jerkstate
This will only be true until a terrorist decides to bomb a train for whatever
reason, and the "public" "demands" "security"

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bnegreve
Yes, but trains may be a little safer from that perspective. They have
hundreds of doors instead of just two, and each door lead to the land, not to
a free fall.

So you can threat the driver, but I don't see how you can prevent passengers
from going away as soon as the train stops.

Now I agree that terrorist can be creative sometimes

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Someone
_”I don 't see how you can prevent passengers from going away as soon as the
train stops.”_

Stop the train between stations, in an area with free views all around for at
least a hundred meters, put two terrorists with a gun and night vision devices
on each end of the train, one on each side.

Because of the height of the step down to the track, many people would already
find it difficult getting out of the train if there is no platform, even if
they wouldn’t be shot at.

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bnegreve
You can hijack a plane with two people in the cockpit. People won't go out and
police won't get in for obvious reasons.

With trains, you need an army of guys spread along the train to shoot at
people trying to get out. Each one of this guy can be neutralized by the
police from outside or even or passengers from the inside (see thalys train
attack). I'm not saying it's impossible but it certainly qualifies as more
difficult.

Well anyway, trains are more comfortable. That's the main reason why I like
them better.

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Someone
I’m not claiming trains are the perfect hijacking target, but they aren’t that
bad, either:

1\. I doubt you’ll need an army. Chances are most of the passengers will be
too scared to even try running away.

2\. You probably can afford to lose a few of the most adventurous passengers.

3\. In many trains, it isn’t that hard to lock the doors using chain locks you
bring in. You can even (partly) do that before your hijack starts.

4\. If you don’t start shooting hostages, the police won’t go in for the
obvious reason that they want to keep the hostages alive.

From the viewpoint of a terrorist big disadvantage of hijacking a train is
that you give up leaving the scene alive and free (airplanes used to have that
as a possibility, as you could negotiate for kerosine and fly to a friendly
country)

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landryraccoon
The US is a little unusual in that we don’t have a ton of trains already.

Europe and Asia have tons of passenger trains that millions of people ride on
every day. Why do you think the risk is that great? These trains already exist
and they don’t get hijacked all the time.

There are reasons to be against trains I suppose but fear of terrorism seems
very farfetched. There are much softer targets around. It’s not like a train
is a force multiplier like a plane is, you can’t take it anywhere.

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Someone
_”Why do you think the risk is that great?”_

Where do you get the impression I do? I just replied to a remark _”I don 't
see how you can prevent passengers from going away as soon as the train
stops”_ with an IMO (but not in HN’s opinion, it seems) reasonable scenario.

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mistrial9
High speed rail is beneficial over time; other parts of the world are doing it
with success. It seems a very bad sign that a large project in the USA is so
difficult, as mentioned elsewhere. Last quick comment is, don't discount the
possibility that this is hardball from a new (attorney) Governor, and there
are more chapters to this story coming.

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macinjosh
The difference between America and Europe, Japan, etc. is that is so spread
out. To get from place A to B in an airplane you essentially just need two
runways. A train needs miles and miles of expensive track that wind around the
landscape between the two places. It just doesn't make sense except in densely
populated areas like the Northeast.

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londons_explore
The track itself isn't the expensive bit. It's simply steel, concrete and
gravel, and probably could cost <100k per mile.

It's the compulsory land purchases and expensive consultants which are the
main expense.

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dx034
Track for high speed trains can be very expensive. Unless land is very flat,
it's not uncommon for >50% of track to be on bridges/in tunnels.

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taobility
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing–Shanghai_high-
speed_ra...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing–Shanghai_high-
speed_railway) The HSR between Beijing and Shanghai has 87% length are
elevated.

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theNJR
While I have a frequency bias, I’ve never experienced more delays and outright
cancelations than LAX-SFO. Southwest on this route seem particularly bad. I
was excited, and voted for, the HSR.

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rawmodz
The current incarnation of the bullet train is two things: An honorarium to
Jerry Brown

a payout to the union’s and bureaucrats to tide them over until the
legislature can think up another boondoggle.

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acct1771
FYI, an apostrophe does not mean "holy shit, here comes an S".

