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Comment by Alupis | Hacker News Reader

The California HSR project is dead, in case you didn't know. It ran over budget nearly 3 times the initial projected cost estimates, and ultimately is going between Merced and Bakersfield instead of the original SF to LA (less than 200 miles of track) - two cities practically no person commutes between.

Overall, the project was a massive failure, and a political party that's in the minority isn't the reason.

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If this is what failures from a “dead” project looks like we’re only a few more failures away from some working rail: https://youtu.be/sa-X1qqxvJU

(I’m much more aware of the California HSR project than most people on the Internet.)

It's a failure in the sense it was supposed to cost $30 Billion but is estimated to be nearly $100 Billion, and was supposed to go between SF and LA with extensions to Sacramento and San Diego, but instead is only covering less than 200 miles of track between two cities nobody commutes between and have small populations which will not be able to sustain the operating costs of this railway.

It doesn't achieve any of the goals it set out to do, is way way over budget, and has been axed by the governor. That's a failure in my book...

More progress on building a high speed rail network than any other state. If this is what failure looks like other states should try some success, I guess. We’ll just have to settle for keeping up with failure as we construct our new rail line, piece by piece by piece.

A railway that will be bankrupt in days, and will have to forever live off tax payer funding, running a route between two cities nobody wants is not a success.

That is, unless your definition of success is any mile of track laid, regardless of how it's used? That's a weird definition of success, if I may say so.

As-is, people will need to drive 2.5 hours from SF to Merced, wait for a train, take a 1.5 hour train ride to Bakersfield, then rent a car and drive another 1.5 hours from Bakersfield to LA.

All that saves about 1 hour of travel time (at the most!)... but requires renting a car, gas, etc.

Basically, this thing is completely useless. Finally the government realized this and cancelled the entire project.

Yet, the California Tax Payers that voted for the $30 Billion Bond Measure will continue to pay the extra taxes for decades to come...

Let’s see what happens. :)

You definitely don’t get high speed rail if you don’t build any.

Sure, I'm on board with that ;)

I'd love to have a HSR in California - but it has to be built for a reasonable budget, and support itself with ticket fares, and go to destinations people actually want. Otherwise, it's just a waste.

Thank you for the videos. It was exciting to see actual progress. What’s your best guess on when we can see the first passengers being transported?

Current estimates are 2024 at the soonest... and that's for the Merced to Bakersfield 170 mile route.

Awesome. Thanks.

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