skipping_bakersfield

As someone who frequently travels between LA and SF, I am trying to understand what the value of the HSR is. I regularly use the both the LA Metro system and BART/Muni in SF and was excited when I first heard of HSR plans in CA. But this doesn’t seem like the right solution. Can you convince me otherwise?

The proposed HSR will take 2 hours, 40 minutes to do from SF to LA (with driving, going through station, etc, I estimate 4h door-to-door) for an estimated ticket price of $86. A flight takes 55 minutes (with driving, airport times, etc, it typically takes me 2h 30m door-to-door) and I usually pay $65 for tickets. With TSA Pre and CLEAR you only have to show up at the airport 25 mins before departure; with a train I’d probably risk 8 minutes before departure. I can’t see me or any of the regular business travelers I know using the proposed HSR.

Why would we allocate $86bn for a slower, more expensive solution?

When voters approved it, the projected cost was $33bn. However, most people believed that the HSR Authority was not telling the truth on cost. It has since skyrocketed to $86bn.

Our cities need subways and other forms of public transportation. We could re-allocate the $86bn to the cities to build out local public transportation. Wouldn’t giving that money to the cities be a drastic improvement in sustainability? (And the amount is large enough that there obviously is a tradeoff!)

Also, given the HSR Authority’s history of untruthfulness on the cost of the project, why should Californians believe the current $86,000,000,000 figure will stick? Especially since other agencies like LA Metro have proven to be able to build on-time and on-budget and are more responsible stewards for the resources we’ve worked so hard for.

If it were high enough speed to be useful—like a maglev or hyperloop—I’d take it every day of the week. But as-it, it seems like a scam, taking money from the projects we need for sustainability and allocating them to projects to enrich contractors.

For me, LAX is closer than Union Station, but we'll call the the same on average across people (though having both LAX and Burbank is a win for airports with no Westside stop for HSR). I usually do get to the airport 30 mins before my flight whereas I'd probably get to the train station 10mins before, so that does save ~20 mins (at least until someone tries to bomb a train and the TSA adds similar delays for trains).

I agree that the train is nicer in terms of walking around.