California has grabbed a golden opportunity to build the nation’s first high-speed rail system, create the backbone of a new, clean 21st century transportation system and support our future economic growth. — Washington Post
After a tough quarrels and special interest maneuvers, the State of California cleared the hurdles to lead the nation for a faster and more connected future. The high speed rail will have major impact on California's economy and its future urban developments. It could very well be the end of architecture's dry decade. Employers; gear up. Employees; apply.
The first segment of the line will run from Madera to Bakersfield. The final cost of the completed project from Los Angeles to San Francisco would be $68 billion.
5 Comments
brown-doggle
$68 billion my ASS!
Sounds pretty great to me - my trips from downtown LA to downtown SF by plane never take less than four hours door to door.
Really? In what way it will fail? On the other hand, if it is completed as scheduled sometime in 15-20 years or so, I am very interested how it will impact urbanism, agriculture and California economy, nationwide development trends and the way cities look and function. I have been looking at CA's Central Valley for a while now and se a lot of possibilities both good and bad in it. It could be disastrous for farmland and whatever remaining small farmers but also can create previously not speculated golden opportunities and new ways of mobility and what that activates. This is too major to call "brown-doggle" and move on. It is real, it will be built. FRaC, I believe you must have more to say about it... I am not partisan about this (or anything else for that matter knowing my political choices will never be in the ballots or seriously elected by the general public.) The idea already survived few administrations both (R) and (D). I am sure you and I can come up better ways to spend 65 billion dollars in a state who is cutting back on education and other social concerns like there is no tomorrow.
We are talking about a major infrastructure that is being widely planned and adopted in most industrialized countries (check this one underway) and creating brand new possibilities along the way. This is a fraction of the money that has been wasted in distant wars that has been draining our resources. I am not sure about the future of our sophisticated highway system due to price and availability of oil in the near future. We need new ways to connect and new possibilities to invest in. I am sure about that. Population in California is now 38 million and it could reach 50-60 by 2050. Chances are I won't be around that long but many of you around this community of architects will. When I first arrived to California the population was 15 million. Things were a lot easier then. Gasoline was 40-50 cents a gallon even right after OPEC embargo, if you had a minimum wage job at $3 per hour, you could still fill your tank, drive in uncongested freeways and live in a decent apartment for $150-200 a month. These living calcs are history now.We still have the same infrastructure except now 40 million people are using it. Did you know the sewer network of Los Angeles is working miraculously over capacity for years? We are about to be drown in our own brown-doggle..
This is too major to call "brown-doggle" and move on. It is real, it will be built. FRaC, I believe you must have more to say about it...
VINDICATION! (and FAILURE) :'(
California's new governor, Gavin Newsom, sharply scaled back plans to build a high-speed train from San Francisco to Los Angeles on Tuesday, saying the program had been botched and cost too much.
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"For those who want to walk away from this whole endeavor, I offer you this," he said. "Abandoning high-speed rail entirely means we will have wasted billions of dollars with nothing but broken promises and lawsuits to show for it."
When state voters approved the massive bullet-train plan in 2008, the project was envisioned to open in 2029 at a cost of $32 billion. But the California High-Speed Rail Authority last year pushed the completion date back by four years and said it would cost at least double.
Newsom on Tuesday blamed oversight failures and a lack of transparency, saying he wasn't "interested in repeating the same old mistakes."
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