CA high-speed rail is Exhibit A for how America can’t build big things anymore
Annie Duke on EconTalk had the best analysis of why it’s failing. The project is perennially having its funds being directed to solve the easiest problems (how to build high speed rail on flat ground in Central Valley) and ignoring major structural challenges (how to cross the mountain ranges into LA). So we’re don’t actually know how much it’ll cost to complete because the hardest parts of the project haven’t even begun.<p>Secondarily there’s all sorts of weird decisions being made that cripple HSR like limiting it to using Caltrain track in the Bay Area (limiting it to 110mph or even less in practice due to stops &#x2F; contention &#x2F; etc) and having HSR have a bunch of stops instead of keeping it non stop at high speed and using local light rail to connect to it. For example, as I understand it, the line in LA makes a weird circuitous out of the way bend to service a suburb of LA which adds significant transit time for very few people vs keeping a straighter route and connecting that suburb with light rail &#x2F; subway &#x2F; buses.<p>Finally, the project is being built as all or nothing instead of the sane way (at least IMHO) of starting in LA and the Bay Area where it might have the possibility of generating revenue and value earlier. You’d need to actually decouple it from local rail so that you stop in San Jose and SF and use CalTrain if you need to stop elsewhere (and maybe one other stop somewhere in the middle). Going from San Jose to SF at 200 mph would be a game changer. It would also be nice if they designed the track to support 300-400 mph trains in the future without needing to rebuild the rail.