California high-speed train system to link NorCal and SoCal at 220mph

Like it or not California, it's about time you folks ponied up for a serious rail system. With the recent passage of Proposition 1A, the wheels have started to churn on a sophisticated bullet train system that will eventually link San Diego in the south with Sacramento in the north, with stops at most every major city in between (LA and San Francisco included). The 800-mile network of trains would operate at upwards of 220mph and cost around $45 billion to construct, but it'll create 320,000 permanent jobs by 2030 and reduce the state's reliance on fossil fuel by 12.7 million barrels of oil per year. Unfortunately, there's no set time frame for completion just yet, but we wouldn't be surprised to see this one finished before that Anaheim - Las Vegas maglev project even gets off the ground.

[Via BoingBoing]

[Jon @ Nov 8th 2008 4:43PM]

No love for the central coast? Dang :\

[bmarley4ever024 @ Nov 8th 2008 7:01PM]

seriously, whats up with that

[miko34 @ Nov 8th 2008 7:32PM]

I think that central coast you speak of is the part that scientists are predicting will fall off into the Pacific.

Waste not, want not.

;)

[a ham sandwich @ Nov 8th 2008 7:35PM]

@miko:

lol nice.

for the time being, us Californians only have to worry about California breaking off from the united states. to go hang with Hawaii. alaska can come too..

[tim @ Nov 8th 2008 8:34PM]

THEE END!

[Pretol @ Nov 8th 2008 8:29PM]

Look at the political map... Nobody wants to pay taxes... Draw the conclusion...

[Steveorevo @ Nov 8th 2008 8:44PM]

This will be great to link back-ass backward towns like Merced with the rest of the real world. Maybe we won't have such dumba** questionable votes in the future.

[john @ Nov 8th 2008 11:24PM]

now we just need Top Gear to race a ZR1 from sac town to la ;)...in the next decade when it's done ;)

[The Walrus @ Nov 9th 2008 12:50AM]

@Steve

You're from the Merced area as well?

[Zuke @ Nov 9th 2008 11:04AM]

Seriously! I live on the central coast and voted against this money pit.

Cali nearly ran into serious cash flow problems last month before they were able to sell $8 billion in bonds for short-term financing. All the billion $ bond measures on November's ballot are gonna sink us even further into debt. WTF people!?!?!

[T.H. @ Nov 9th 2008 1:58PM]

http://www.purple-twinkie.com/FlashMovies/EndWorld.asp

In case anyone was wondering what user "a ham sandwich" was talking about. Very old animated short. I just watched it again a couple months ago in fact.

[phanbouy fan @ Nov 9th 2008 9:56PM]

can somebody run through this article and tell me how many times my precious phanbouy commented? he is a man on fire, i am losing count. i think we're right around "getting pathetic" or 20 or so.

[alex @ Nov 10th 2008 1:24AM]

i guess it's just not worth the cost. the central valley's gonna experience a ton of growth in the coming decades - way more than the central coast.

[KAIKAI @ Nov 8th 2008 4:43PM]

oh maglev where art thou ??

[mkeough23 @ Nov 8th 2008 4:46PM]

fast

[Chuckles McGee @ Nov 8th 2008 6:47PM]

In your face, Japan! USA, USA!

[Wulile @ Nov 9th 2008 2:22AM]

What if you spit out the window at top speed? Could it kill a man?

[Dave Chappelle @ Nov 9th 2008 4:39AM]

yes and 45 billion dollars on the line it damn well better be. Damn 800miles is like 1 300 km thats seriously epic we need that in Australia.

The Las Vegas plan will get under way WHEN HALIBURTON DAMN WELL FEELS LIKE IT! K?

[heffeque @ Nov 9th 2008 10:35AM]

In your face, Japan? What did you drink?
The fastest trains are still in Japan, France, China and Germany.

[Temple @ Nov 9th 2008 9:31PM]

The likelihood is that California is going to purchase a train from a company like Kawasaki who recently announced a 350kph(217mph) efSET train to be designed for the US and China markets specifically, and it'll be ready by 2010.

So its really not in the face of the Japanese.

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/09/japans-new-bull.html

"An efSET network in the United States would revolutionize train travel. A trip between Boston and New York would be cut to less than an hour. Los Angeles to San Francisco would take less than two hours and a run from Miami to Atlanta would be done in three hours and change."

[No_Obama @ Nov 8th 2008 4:48PM]

Cali is broke as hell and they want to build 45 billion train???!! Guess everyone is lining up for their Obama entitlement...
I have been waiting by my mailbox since Wednesday and Obamas check still has not arrived.

[rhkarma @ Nov 8th 2008 4:50PM]

holy off topic batman!

[thatrotierkid @ Nov 8th 2008 4:54PM]

haha does anyone else see the o_O face in his name... so epic... perfectly describes my reaction to his comment

[BigD145 @ Nov 8th 2008 4:55PM]

Oh, is it January already?

[thatrotierkid @ Nov 8th 2008 5:04PM]

also...

1) it will create 320,000 jobs. jobs = better economy = money
2) its not about free hand outs and "entitlement" as you put it. its about creating jobs, making sure everyone can get medical help and what they need so that crime and poverity is reduced. lower crime and poverity = better economy = money
3) bet you were all in favor of that $300 bush gave us all this year. hypocrite
4) the elections over, america has decided. give the guy a chance to prove himself instead of assuming you know how things are going to play out. unless your looking for sarah connor you know nothing more than anyone else does.

sorry for feeding the troll

[ho bama @ Nov 8th 2008 10:38PM]

I'm with you o_0 America sold out......literally sold the presidency. Totally hoodwinked the entire country without ever having Obama ever having to answer a single question. Now the liberal media will begin to do their jobs to show how "balanced" they are. There needs to be a new word for liberal now because liberal doesn't cover what this character is. I love how they made fun of President Bush for hiring his "friends" to high positions........who did Ob just choose for Chief of Staff......yeppers, an 'ol buddy from IL. Where's the "Change"......I laughed the whole election at those idiots holding "We want change" signs......in about 3 years those people will be on the streets holding signs that say "I need some spare change".........then the final year of his term "sukyourdickfor a dollar". What a black mark on this country....no pun intended.

[Totalfixation @ Nov 8th 2008 5:14PM]

California is so broke and i really didn't like the though of bonds paying for this, this means we're borrowing more money to pay for this project. The problem with this proposition, there are no set date of completion and no exact cost to this construction. So I'm seriously going to bet this thing will be over budgeted and will pass any set projected deadline. That's government for ya, government projects rarely fall below estimated cost.

[frank Da Tank @ Nov 8th 2008 5:50PM]

Too bad we can't ban Stupid... but we can ban gay marriage... lame.

[Mike @ Nov 8th 2008 6:10PM]

No no I mean during the night, when theres no sun

[ilh @ Nov 8th 2008 7:15PM]

I'm struggling to figure out how they're going to create 320000 jobs let alone permanent ones. The line doesn't seem big enough to make that many.

[redringofdeath @ Nov 8th 2008 10:44PM]

@ilh

At the moment there's this idea going around, which has become quite popular, that we can miraculously solve both the economic and environmental crises through massive government spending on green infrastructure projects. One of Obama's campaign promises was that he would create 5 million new jobs through renewable energy projects. People are eating this up since it is such an easy answer. All we have to do is build more trains and presto! No more global warming, no more recession, brilliant! Unfortunately most of these projects are more like snake oil rather than miracles cures. That's not say they're all bad, though.

This train might have been a good idea if California wasn't completely bankrupt. I voted against it. Personally, I'd rather have schools and prisons, but I guess this train will have to do.

[dandaman @ Nov 8th 2008 11:53PM]

Obama and the government do not owe you money. The government owes you social services - schools, police, etc. That's what taxes are - your subscription to social services.

[mabhatter @ Nov 9th 2008 11:11PM]

that's only 3 years of the windfall oil industry profits from the recent spike in gas prices. Put that into perspective... 3 years profit (not costs) to reduce the stranglehold they have on us.

[Mike @ Nov 8th 2008 4:54PM]

By 2030 We wont be using fossil fuel. We will probably have a solar panel on every roof of everything and a battery that stores the power for when theres no sun.

[jaalin @ Nov 8th 2008 4:57PM]

and it's trains like this that make it possible...

[Mike @ Nov 8th 2008 4:58PM]

Yea so lets have EVERY state spend 45 billion on a train system. Smart..

[who? @ Nov 8th 2008 5:11PM]

I'm with Mike. I want everyone on Earth to die because of global warming if it means I can save a quick buck :-)

[Ashwin @ Nov 8th 2008 5:21PM]

@who?
If you die, what exactly will that buck do for you?

[Mike @ Nov 8th 2008 5:21PM]

We are not saving a quick buck, more like 2,500,000,000,000 And thats saying IF it actually is 45 billion a state. By the time 2030 comes we might not have a United States to live in because it filed bankrupt..

[Mike @ Nov 8th 2008 5:22PM]

@ Ash

He was being sarcastic.

[macxprt @ Nov 8th 2008 5:41PM]

Even if we are using different fuels by the time this is finished, we could switch the train to run on whatever the fuel de jour happens to be by then

Also, no matter what happens, it would be bitchin' to travel in a train at over 200 miler per hour!

[bill cant fart @ Nov 8th 2008 6:04PM]

@Mike

Are you saying that the sun is gonna die soon?! And that batteries are gonna replace it?!!?

[Mike @ Nov 8th 2008 6:11PM]

No I mean at night when theres no sun.

[High Ranks make you sterile @ Nov 8th 2008 7:42PM]

Human life on Earth will become unsustainable well before the sun dies out....

The sun is currently expanding, not dying.

[Andy TGD @ Nov 9th 2008 6:19AM]

"By 2030 We wont be using fossil fuel. We will probably have a solar panel on every roof of everything and a battery that stores the power for when theres no sun."

Uh. Maybe where you live, dude. But here in Ireland there's a semi-permanent cloud which blocks out the great ball of fire. You won't be able to get enough juice to power a wrist watch, let alone a car.

[marinp @ Nov 9th 2008 2:28PM]

I surely hope so, but then again, there were many in the 70s who said we'd be off it at this point as well. Yay bullet train! There's a real transportation issue in the state, and it needs to be FIXED. FIX IT!

[wickedpheonix @ Nov 9th 2008 3:06PM]

"Yea so lets have EVERY state spend 45 billion on a train system. Smart.."

@Mike: You're forgetting that California is one of the larger states in the US. Out east, you would need to have pretty much all of the East Coast state governments collaborate on one giant long bullet train (think Miami to Boston, which is Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, maybe DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts...) and the odds of that many governments agreeing on this project not just in principle but in how to split up the costs is pretty much nil. If the Feds decide to partially fund the results of Prop 1A then that gives precedent to the Feds (at least) partially funding a similar system running up and down the East Coast - and yeah it'll take 70 years, but such rail systems could eventually extend along the other borders of the US and through the Midwest as well possibly, until we pretty much replace the antiquated, broken system that is Amtrak.

[brokenkeyboard @ Nov 9th 2008 11:59PM]

"We are not saving a quick buck, more like 2,500,000,000,000 And thats saying IF it actually is 45 billion a state."

Well, if totally building a high-speed nation-wide passenger rail network is only 2.5 Trillion, thats a much better use than the ~3 Trillion estimated total cost of the Iraq war and the several trillion (and counting) on bank handouts this year.

Hell, if we apparently can just print unlimited amounts of dollars, trillions at a time, might as well spend them on something worthwhile, that actually builds useful things and gives people jobs.

[BigD145 @ Nov 8th 2008 4:56PM]

I hope this doesn't wait too long. We could eliminate so many airlines with high speed rail and it'll be really hard for terrorists to cause a California train to skip off its tracks and hit the Pentagon.

[Ignatius @ Nov 8th 2008 4:59PM]

It'd probably have to be going a lot faster than that.