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> high-speed trains running from Merced to Bakersfield

I lived in CA for 15 years. I've been all over it (incl central ca). This would be such a pyrrhic victory, that I lack words! Who the hell needs to commute enough between those two god-forsaken places to justify the billions spent on this?

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What's the justification for the far more expensive SR-99 that serves the same route?

Trucking - lots of agriculture and other transport shipped through 99

So it's an important commercial route but with no passenger demand? What a geographic oddity! I bet you'd be hard-pressed to find any other examples of that, anywhere.

Not really. Cargo uses very different routes than people commonly. How many people travel from Shenzhen to the port of Oakland? Now how many cargo containers?

Wow you got me there. I'm cancelling my Oakland-Shenzen train project right now.

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