At this point, even if you like the idea of high speed rail, you have to cringe at the fiasco that Californias efforts to build a high speed rail project has become. Its hard to understand how current plans can lead to anything but failure financially, and just as hard to explain how the label high speed can be applied to the rumored, potential routes, most of which have been drawn for political purposes rather than for meeting speed goals. Most frustrating is the fact that High Speed Rail Authoritys plans are to implement technology that is decades old and could very well be obsolete by the time the first train runs. Contrast that official effort with the work of a group of volunteer engineers and graduate students from UCLA, who are completing a study showing the feasibility of building Elon Musks alternative to high speed rail, Hyperloop. They argue they can deliver a much better, much faster experience at less than a tenth of the cost of the California High Speed Rail Authoritys estimate. They want to prove it can work with real life prototypes and a route from Los Angeles to Las Vegas before they propose any route from San Francisco to Los Angeles through the Central Valley. Does this kind of thing capture your imagination? At what point would you be willing to throw out current plans for high speed rail and reevaluate completely?
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 15:30:05 +0000