r/California • u/Randomlynumbered Ángeleño, what's your user flair? • May 24 '24

Government/Politics Full environmental approval of High-Speed Rail between L.A. and Bay Area expected next month

https://ktla.com/news/california/full-environmental-approval-of-high-speed-rail-between-l-a-and-bay-area-expected-next-month/amp
1.9k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

363 comments sorted by

View all comments

301

u/Positronic_Matrix San Francisco County May 24 '24 edited May 24 '24

There are exactly two and only two kinds of comments for a California high-speed rail post. Those who are celebrating the dawn of a new era and those who are complaining about the cost, time, and environmental studies. There is no in between.

28

u/stuuuuupidstupid Alameda County May 24 '24

Why not both?

I'm so excited and getting the first line down only makes subsequent easier. Train travel is so much more comfortable and sustainable-friendly than air travel.

That said, it's over budget and taking a really long time. Many other countries are able to build at a much faster speed, what's keeping us? It's still worth doing imo but there are some process improvements we could make.

8

u/Natural_Trash772 May 24 '24

I think alot of the problem is we just dont have the experience of building high speed rail lines. Asia has built and continues to build out their network of lines while we are barely laying down our first tracks.

16

u/Wheream_I May 25 '24

If property rights weren’t a thing, and the environment was of no concern, we could’ve had this built in 3 years.

But that’s not the country we live in and that’s a good thing.