California High-Speed Trains: Tehachapi Pass

[bartybum]

NO!!! DIESEL IS THE WAY OF LIFE

[gibb1991]

@bartybum Diesel isn't powerful enough to run the alternators in order to reach such high speeds. Even if it were possible, the train would have to refuel every few hundred miles at those speeds. It would be too expensive.

[phillyslasher]

This better be a dedicated line. If not, this "highspeed" train will be delayed 8 hours a day waiting for all the freight traffic to clear.

[gibb1991]

@phillyslasher Yes, it is dedicated.

[rock3tcat]

lol What? America wants high speed rail? xD

[gibb1991]

@rock3tcat Actually, yes. I recent study by "AmericaTHINKS" showed that 88% of Americans support High-Speed Rail.

[SuperMegaFart]

i like the 3d animation it looks real!!!!

[tylertyler82]

What a pretty ride, so much more to look at then riding on an airplane.

[TheMantisTycoon]

At the moment, the east coast has the only high speed train in America, and it's nothing compared to the TGV Duplex! HSR is WAAAAY more frequent then jets. Trains leaving every hour is better then waiting 3 hours for a plane. Can't wait for the trains to arrive here! Untill it's built, my room will be flooded with posters of it! xD

[gibb1991]

@TheMantisTycoon: Agreed! CHSR plans to have trains departing every 5 minutes during peak hours!

[WayOvertaxed]

Never mind now. It's not going to happen since California is on the very edge of Bankruptcy. Because CA's congress didn't pass a proper budget, the state's credit rating will be lowered to Junk-Bond status...i.e. NO way of ever funding this project! The good news is they'll STILL find a way to pay for welfare, section-8 housing, food stamps, child care, college aid, pre-K to 12 schooling, breakfast-lunch programs, prison housing, etc. etc. etc. for the 16+ MILLION ILLEGAL aliens in our state.

[sideslide23]

IT will happened matter fact, Nevada is getting a high speed train calls the Desert Xpress and it will go from Victorvill CA to Las Vegas Nevada, traveling 150 MPH and the project starts next year. type Desert Xpress in google if you don't believe me.

[gibb1991]

@sideslide23: I love DesertXpress. Mostly because of the fact that it is a private company, not government run. Just like the new Italo in Italy. HSR has become a profitable industry and more companies should take advantage.

[sideslide23]

maybe the Desert Xpress is being payed by the Gamblers, so the Desert Xpress will become a reality.

[MagicTimeVideos]

@WayOverboard

"16+ MILLION ILLEGAL aliens in our state." Really? since its all doom and gloom in CA why not solve everyone's problem and move?

chicken little just called, she wants to know what time the sky will be falling.

[Coastergeekperson04]

There are nowhere near 16 million illegal aliens. That would account for one third to one half of the population.

[decline2state]

I'll be very surprised if one foot of HSR track is ever laid. No matter how fast the train goes, it will take at least an hour less to fly from the Bay Area to L.A. For travel to intermediate points (Stockton, Fresno, Bakersfield, etc.), the train might be a few minutes faster, but probably not enough to matter.

If the money proposed for the HST were instead spent on improving Hwys 99, 5, and 101 between the Bay Area and the Southland, it'd probably be a much better investment.

[poseidoncambria]

Sure, and a lot more traffic with a ton of more pollution with those freeway improvements. That's not going to solve the problem here. We need a high-capacity system that runs between the major population centers; HSR is the best solution.

[yangj08]

And it would cost more as well as (indirectly) result in more dead people. And train stations are already downtown- how far is LAX from the city center? Or worse, Ontario?

[zomgitskai]

I understand your point, but there are a few advantages of HSTs that you may have overlooked...?

- the TOTAL time it takes you to get from your home to your final destination by train will actually be less than that of a flight. (trains departing at 9,12,3,6,will be faster than flights departing at 1 and 5)...

- They are much more environmentally friendly. I'd ride on the train JUST for that..

(I WISH they plan on building them here in Canada...)

[sideslide23]

there eventually will go from Washington state into part of canada.

[AMTK6908]

screw high speed rail

[MrEiriku]

@AMTK6908 screw your ass

[emforty2]

tax gasoline to fund this

were so behind after the europe, japan, and even china

on mass transit

electric cars or hybrid is NOT gonna help a bit they cost more and traffic is going to be worse

[sideslide23]

true and not everyone can afford hybrid cars because in 10 years from now, hybrid car will start at $35,000 to $100,000 which nobody would want to waste that much on a subcompact for $35000

[njdevil281]

North America is not built like Europe, Japan, or China either you jerkoff. The US has a population density of 80 ppl per square mile. Europe it's 300. Which means they have roughly 4 times as many tax payers per mile of road to upkeep, or train tracks, or runways, or any other public system. On top of that America is 2 times the size of continental Europe with cities much more spread out. Japans population density is 870 people per square mile. 10X as many tax payers. Think before you speak.

[s2k997]

@njdevil281 While it is true, that overall the spread averages are different, both Europe and the US have places which are, and aren't, suitable for HSR. There are major corridors where rail does/could work, and there are many, many locations where it would be a failure; for instance the Acela route has a higher population density than ten High Speed lines in Europe I can think of right now. California, again, has potential. Barren and empty states like Nevada tip the figures downwards.

[gibb1991]

@njdevil281 It really depends on where you're looking. California is the 2nd most densly populated state in the USA. The trains are meant to connect major city centers, not inner city areas. If population density actually mattered, then we wouldn't drive all the way to the outskirts of cities to get to the airports, now would we?

[njdevil281]

@gibb1991 I think your confused as to what your talking about. Driving to an airport has nothing to do with population density or the ability of the public to pay for public transportation. In fact it proves my point.

[gibb1991]

@njdevil281 It proves your point in some locations. But California, being a densly populated state, is justified for such a system.

[MrEiriku]

@njdevil281 cum in my mouth prostitute

[pdwman]

AHH SHUNN THE DEMOCRAT!

[acdc1287]

the prop won and so did obama :), wheres my speed train!!!

[Modeltrainguy]

I'll bet Obama NEVER knew or 'simply forgot' about this...

The 1 Hour PBS TV Program "NOVA", highlighted the VERY plan to bring Bullet Trains to California:

"Tracking The Supertrains

While America's passenger-train service deteriorates, trains in Japan and Europe are speeding ahead at over 150 miles per hour. NOVA reports that the super-fast trains are finally coming to America.

Original broadcast date: 12/14/82

Topic: technology/engineering"

[DaaYay]

We WILL get HSR in all major cities and states across the U.S including and begining with California IF!! IF you vote *YES* on Proposition 1A and vote for Barack Obama. Barack Obama has shown COMPLETE support for building National HSR Infrastructure! Joe Biden is a DAILY Amtrak rider and Supports rail travel 100%. These two will get these projects built!

As Opposed to John MCcain who is a well known "Train Hater" & thinks the little we spend on Amtrak is "a waste of money", Can U beleive it?

[musthavejava]

I can believe it. But when you have 13 cars at your disposal that run just fine, I guess it clouds your priorities. It's the equivalent of saying, "Hey bud, I've got mine; go get your own."  Bad thinking; very, very bad!

[Modeltrainguy]

This is EXACTLY what our American Railroads need to be: "0" dependant on Oil with Fast Electric trains!

But our "American Government" and "American Railroads" NEVER pushed forward with this.

IF this begun back in the early to Mid 1980's imagine where we would be?

Japan's Bullet Train (Shinkansen): Online in 1964. The TGV in 1981! Both have "EXCELLENT safety records" to prove High Speed Rail DOES work!

Where are we? Overdosed on Oil! With "Inept Railroad CEO'S" & A LAZY Congress!"

[jasbcor]

Remember John Anderson who ran for pres. back in 80 or 84? He wanted to put a gas tax of .50 cents on top of $1 a gallon gas and everyone thought he was nuts. He wanted to use the revenue for advanced transportation. Seems very smart in retrospect doesn't it?

[Modeltrainguy]

Interesting! I forgot about him. Yes...it did seem like a smart idea.

[th3gtr]

@Modeltrainguy Actually, we did push forward in the past. We use to have the best passenger railway service in the world pre-war. Then the Interstates came. Check these videos out. We were actually incredibly close to getting HSR in the 1980's!

NOVA - 1982 - Tracking the Supertrains Part 3 of 6

NOVA - 1982 - Tracking the Supertrains Part 4 of 6

NOVA - 1982 - Tracking the Supertrains Part 5 of 6

NOVA - 1982 - Tracking the Supertrains Part 6 of 6

[HWGuyEG]

@Modeltrainguy

The USA isn't a functional democracy, whatever it's major political controllers(corporations, the most wealthy, even some cults have more power) want is exactly what happens, any president who dares disobey his contributors risks death.

The individual states vary, some have corruption comparable to former soviet states (although those are kept unstable by the USA and Russia, it's not not internally, same /w africa), some have democratic power comparable to second world nations.

[racerJohnWayne]

sound off?

[DaaYay]

Get educated about High Speed Rail! Visit one of the many blogs at: cahsr(dot)blogspot(dot)com

[PanGottardo]

In the eye of global warming, this should be the future of railroading in the US. True, the Europeans DID and still DO pay their highspeed-lines with their taxes. But they tend to easily forget (as user rberding does), that by highspeed-lines trains easily outrun planes by time, by environmental measures and soon by prices, too.

Considering the comment on the "typical American taxpayer": start thinking about how many billions, even trillions of dollars the US spends on wars each year...

[DASCO2136]

I agree on the high speed thing for passenger train perspective like Amtrak but from a railfan perspective i disagree because if every rail line in the US switchs to high speed rail then it ruins the varitey of engines i see every time when i go out train watching.

[PanGottardo]

*g* Honestly, I strongly doubt that will happen. First of all, you can't direct bulk cargo to highspeed. Even with the most modern equipment in use, cargo doesn't exceed 120km/h currently. Only passenger trains reach higher speed.

Come to Europe and see for yourself, that despite having highspeed-lines, we still have lowspeed-lines and a HUGE variety of trains running them. :o)

[DASCO2136]

Ok. Do you have 500 bucks for airfare, hotel & rental car?

[newic500]

Actually, in France, you have a very large majority/exclusivity of TGV.

The old TGV are used for slow lines.

[emachines34]

i think becuase of how big america is, that even trains travelling at 220 mph like the planned california high speed line, is still not fast enough, something along the lines of 350-400mph is needed in order for rail to have a huge impact on the US and probably even 500mph if you are travelling by rail from new york to los angeles!

[Espeelover]

I don't even have a job and if they build it i will have more tax money taken out of my paycheck for somthing not even needed

[georgekrejci]

If only our government had the will power to implement this in the US, our airports would be relieved of congestion. Go wind power!

[prelan]

way to go

[rberding]

This was only possible in Europe by taking more money from the taxpayers.

Robert The Netherlands

[narutofan9285]

This is america in the future. The far future.

[meyer8400]

Whoa. Interesting.

[Shilo888]

we wish

[bakersfields]

Tehachapi pipe dreams!

[SeXsTaZy1]

cool