SFist: Biting the Bullet Train

JIM KLICH

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 00:39:35 -0800

Would it not be better to use the Acela or an improved version of the Acela. 37 billion is a lot of money the ticket price may be to high. We should improve on what we have.

TruthMaker

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 12:57:01 -0800

Oh you noticed that the transpo bond that we just mortgaged the next two generations for was all about the petrochemical/automobile industries. This train will never, ever be built, because the oil and auto industries still have way too strong a hold over our society. Add in their housing development partners in crime, who continue who expand their tract housing sprawl to further and further reaches of the state, and you've got perpetual gridlock when it comes to alternative transpo. We'll have flying cars before we have a freakin' bullet train in this country -- unless the powers that control our lives can be convinced that they can make equally as much money and wield equally as much power with bullet trains. The public is sold on the idea, but the public has no power to affect the situation.

Jamison

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 20:05:03 -0800

Sure it's expensive, but we get so much else along with this project as a bonus... The bond would cover extending rail to a rebuilt transbay terminal. No more Muni to BART to the Airport. That will extend Caltrain along with it, and then there is electrifying the Caltrain corridor, grade separating the corridor (like BART which never crosses at street level). If it uses the Altamont Pass, it would help get the Dumbarton Rail project back into gear, and would connect with BART in Fremont. And of course there's the fact it would be a three hour trip from downtown SF to downtown LA.