Comments by "Jim Luebke" (@jimluebke3869) on "Why California High Speed Rail is Struggling (Re-upload)" video.

  1. By the way, the Altamont Corridor Express isn't particularly popular, indicating that HSR from the Central Valley into Silicon Valley doesn't have much mass appeal.
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  2. The reasons that the San Joaquin Valley is impoverished are: a) Loose (now, nonexistent) national immigration laws, glutting the labor market b) Strict (now, oppressive) state irrigation laws depriving the best-soil-in-the-world agriculture sector of water. High speed rail would not help with either of these issues.
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  3. Trains that actually stop in Modesto, Merced, etc, would not be "high speed". By the way, housing costs in Silicon Valley would make the fair market price of laying a mile of track there, more than $1 billion dollars. Yes, that's billion with a "b", for the land alone. No, there aren't any non-urban areas along the route. Well, except for an area that is literally directly on top of the San Andreas Fault.
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  4. Didn't Gavin Newsom cancel this program?
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  5. The solution to the commuting problem is to build actual businesses in Modesto, Stockton, and Bakersfield. Satellite offices for major corporations would be very popular, considering the onerous cost of living in the state's urban areas.
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