Governor Brown is basically telling a Superior Court judge from Sacramento that his ruling won't matter. Instead of issuing a statement along the lines of looking for measures that would satisfy the tenets of the proposition, he states: http://www.kcra.com/news/brown-judg...an/-/11797728/21530878/-/5j2kxiz/-/index.html The LA Times reported and was linked to in the article: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-dr...other-roadblock-front-california-bullet-train I'm thinking that the state's proposition process is finished if members of the political class and judiciary can overturn or disregard California voters simply because they don't agree with them. I have problems with the proposition process. Yet that's the state I live in, so all I can do is vote. The bullet train project should be halted until this Superior Court judge gets overruled or the state adheres to the tenets of the proposition.
Brown has a big hard-on for this bullet train. Maybe he just wants to build a memorial to himself that is long, hard and is finished with the job before you're even aware you've started.
Take Jerry Brown and the state to court and let him defend his illegal disregard for this judge's ruling. The state has clearly thumbed it's nose at the bullet train initiative and is busy violating the many safeguards and guidelines written into the legislation. This is a fight Brown cannot win. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0817-bullet-ruling-20130817,0,4946222.story
All this litigiousness aside, does such a train really make sense? Basically, it's just a flight, competing with the airlines. In both cases, we're talking about transport cost, frequency, proximity to where you want to go, volume of traffic, access to rental cars when you get there. So does the train get you there faster, all of the overhead considered? Does it do so cheaper? From LA to Merced doesn't get you real close to SF, much less to Sacramento. So what would it cost? How much would you gain? I doubt this route will ever be competitive with the airlines.
It makes sense. Of course, one can always challenge the cost to productivity ratio with their business rules and logic models. As with any transport service, whether it be data(Internet traffic), wares(freight) or people, which type of service, road, rail, water or air, all have their engineering tradeoffs. High speed rail is most certainly viable, rail is inexpensive compared to road. Each service has a capacity limit, so building both better rail and road is the most reasonable approach.
You may be right, but economically this is up to the user, and users don't itemize their costs in such detail, for the most part. For most people, time is what matters. In my town (maybe 200,000 people), there are regular buses following the main routes around town. If I wished to go to the center of town from my house, well, let's see. The nearest bus stop is almost a mile from me, which is a hike (and takes time). But that bus doesn't go downtown, it goes to a mall where, once an hour, a bus leaves for downtown. So I take that, do whatever, and wait for return trips. Elapsed total time, about 6 hours. Plus about $1.50 in bus fares. Compare to hopping in the car. Yeah, about $1,50 in gas and parking meter fees., But total elapsed time ONE hour. So let's say I wish to go from LA to SF and back, with 2 hours in SF. About a 10-hour trip. With the train, I drive to the station, park (and pay for parking), buy a ticket, wait for departure time, get to Merced no faster than I could have driven it, I'm STILL two hours from SF by car, whch I must rent. And so on. Total trip costs me about twice as much and takes about twice as long. Hell of a bargain, right? Tell you what, I'll race you. How much you willing to bet?
The judge probably heard about Musks tube idea - - - Updated - - - Except Merced is not the final stop
The judge has virtually halted funding since he's given the bullet train people a chance to do what they've demonstrated already they cannot do....find a solid committed source of funding. Jerry Moonbeam is blowing smoke out of his rear.
Your estimate is based on a predetermined traffic flow. How much do you want to bet that the future there will be a larger traffic flow. Then lets add in inclimate weather, trains are for the most part weather insensitive. There are too many variables on this problem to narrow it down to simply time and money for a single person. If no one took the train but me, I am sure your traffic would prohibit your time schedule. Train service is needed, maybe not for you, but it is needed.
