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California Requests Stimulus Funding For Bullet Train
marquinhocb writes "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger requested $4.7 billion in federal stimulus money Friday to help build an 800-mile bullet train system from San Diego to San Francisco. 'We're traveling on our trains at the same speed as 100 years ago,' the governor said. 'That is inexcusable. America must catch up.' Planners said the train would be able to travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in two hours and 40 minutes, traveling at speeds of more than 200 miles per hour. About time! There comes a point when 'let's add another lane' is no longer a viable option!"
I'm thinking a better suggestion is between Los Angeles and Tijuana.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
After spending $4.7 trillion, not billion, they will have a light rail between San Diego and San Francisco that travels at 50 MPH.
'We're traveling on our trains at the same speed as 100 years ago,' the governor said.
So trains traveled 5 mph a 100 years ago?
56 million dollars per mile
In California this breaks down to:
10 million per mile for environmental impact studies
20 million per mile in lawsuits related to the environmental impact studies
20 million per mile in kickbacks
56 million per mile in construction costs thanks to union labor wages
These will be the actual per-mile costs due to lowball estimating in order to get the project started and to take on a life of its own so it will be completed no matter what the final costs.
It's not like the US Govt is having problems keeping a balanced budget.
Stop having so many wars... they're expensive! Iraq and Afghanistan, ~$150 billion a year. How many bullet train systems could you buy?
31.914893617021276595744680851064
Portland and San Jose is full of the sort of people who like trains, so the opposition would be less.
Unemployed semiconductor engineers like trains?
Semiconductor engineer? What is that - some guy who pilots a monorail? Or maybe he only collects half the tickets....
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
GMAFB
Get My Ass.. Fucked... Backwards?
You just got troll'd!
You waste 45 minutes driving while your boss could be working while he is sitting on the train, because he isn't driving.
Exactly. Not only can you work on the train, you can drink on the train. So you're not only missing work time, you're missing drinking time.
That has to figure in to the equation somewhere.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Hey, Ryanair "Copenhagen" (Malmo) was not even in the right country let alone city :-)
>> Man, if I had mod points, I'd mod you -1, Wrong.
Actually, going by the bullshit he has accumulated on this thread, we will need -100 "send this one to oblivion" mod.