Retirement age should be 55

Dude stop

Good dog ☺️

Not original commenter but I have a story about getting “lost” at a young age. My mom had me outside with her while she was in her garden and lost track of me for a few minutes where I crawled/walked away. Later as she’s running yelling for me and going into full panic mode, my dog was barking nonstop. She kept yelling Buster shut up! Finally went over to get him and put him inside, only to find he was standing right next to me trying to get her attention. Great dog.

As a kid I did monarch tagging in the 90s. Catching them in the field behind my house where they’d visit on their migrations, carefully gluing tags on them and releasing them. The tagging kit was free from the researchers, we were so poor I couldn’t afford a butterfly net, so I used a wal-mart bag on a stick. I got nearly beat up when some other kids found me doing it one day.

Anyway there’s my rambling memory of loving these poor guys and trying to help, way back in the early 90s. So glad they finally made a comeback at the 11th hour, but more needs to be done here and for other species.

I didn't say that. I'm merely pointing out that there are a large amount of travel between norcal/socal that can be replaced with a bullet train.

The bullet train will be comparable to a plane ticket and coming in at an estimated $86 each way. A bullet train could take only 3 hours, which beats the 6-7 hour drive and half a day you spend at the airport. TSA, pre-boarding, waiting on the tarmac, enduring your 32" economy legroom, baggage claim, and all the unnecessary overhead.

In any country with a bullet train, telling someone you want to fly to the next major city is usually met with "yeah you could, but why the hell would you do that? Why not take the train?"

Car companies needed to cash out first

It's time to start thinking about the impacts of short distance air-travel. Commercial air is the largest polluter by a longshot. Fuck them planes

What happens when you don't need to deal with contractors and sub-contractors and sub-sub contractors. China can build infrastructure quickly thanks to central planning and vertical integration.

I shouldn't have stopped for that haircut. Sorry.

Not as long as Elon still draws breath.

Good for you man, we should celebrate!

Why is this phrased like an abridged fairytale

Won't ever happen. It's a nice thought. But there's no way in hell companies would get on board with this sort of thing.

Yes...water rights. People have a right to basic necessities in this country last I checked water is a basic necessity. Now bring on your bot down votes.

This train is also projected to be slower, and more expensive than flying, so all 2 million are not going to switch to the train.

I read that as like a monarchy. But those butterflies are so cool, great to hear they are doing better!

That's flawed thinking, it's not about jobs created, it's about infrastructure value -- jobs are a bonus.

For example, BART only employs 3500 people, yet cost 2B to build. "Oh no it costs 500K per job", but the infrastructure moves 26M people annually and without it the bay traffic would be even more unbearable.

Over 2M people fly annually between LAX and SFO alone, with ground travel magnitudes larger. Yes rail is an expensive project, but the value created would pay itself over multiple times. For example, The SF/Oakland bridge was $6B dollars to build, but they get $800M in tolls per year. ROI potential for these types of infrastructure is huge.

Sometimes.

It can still take a long time with eminent domain.

Ugh did the japanese bullet train go way over budget?

Because I remember clearly it went waaaaaaaaaaay over budget.

Infrastructure projects are complicated projects that involve major public and private planning, development and cooperation.

I’m pretty sure most major projects go over budget or deal with problems as they deploy.

Some infrastructure projects just straight up fail (see places in the Middle East that don’t complete).

Y’all expect too much.

Everything is not a conspiracy theory, it's been documented California originally consulted with Japan and European bullet train makers. They came in and made recommendations on route and construction processes. They were all ignored, California made their own plan and all the foreign companies pulled out realizing early this would turn into a shit show.

I'm for the bullet train but being lied to and having all this money squandered is not the way to go. The current plan is to have a train from Merced to Bakersfield that no one will ride and it's not high speed anymore, I think the max speed is 110mph in a small section somewhere and the ticket is supposed to cost over 100 per person per direction.

Interesting that you chose to cite the Big Dig, a project that was a complete fucking mess. Major cost overruns, leaks, deaths, ceiling collapse, several hundred million dollar lawsuits, etc. probably not the best example buddy.

Is there a chance the track could bend?

If we don’t get a stop in Kettleman City I’m gonna be pissed

That train already exists. An extra couple of hours is what’s holding back your travels? If an extra few hours of travel time is what’s holding back this amazing tourist spend, then I’d argue that the demand isn’t sufficient for it to be built. It’ll also be expensive like HSR is in Europe compared to other modes of travel. If a foreign tourist can pay $100 or $50 but the cheaper option takes longer, they’ll take the cheaper option because they’re on vacation, they’re not in a hurry.