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Originally Posted by ardecila
I'm with Beta on the funds, though. I'd prefer to see them spent in California even if they don't go to the HSR project. They could work wonders untangling the overstrained existing corridors in SF and LA.
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There’s some expectation that a through-electrifying and through-routing LOSSAN would happen in lieu of CHSRA’s proposed phase 2 via the inland empire—they’re already doing great work there and are already tunneling under trouble spots. SoCal is, contrary to stereotypes, really doing a better job planning and implementing passenger rail (witness LOSSAN, 30/10) than the Bay Area nowadays. If CHSRA can’t get its act together, then shorter corridor work should be the priority
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I'd love for the Midwest to be the first to step up and build a 220mph system, though... We have ideal conditions (flat land, unused ROWs, popular support for rail)
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IIRC, there was hype about this around 2008 from the Midwest high-speed boosters claiming Chicago-Champaign could be completed before the initial operating segment of California HSR. It’s unfortunate Indianapolis has so little pull with Indiana’s state government—it is, after Milwaukee, the closest medium-large city to Chicago and is only fifty miles more distant than Champaign. A Chicago-Indianapolis line would have been a great starter, which could have then been later extended to Milwaukee, and then phased to Cincinnati and Minneapolis to make a nice core system.
Of course, every overrun California does makes it even less likely that something like that will emerge here in the next fifteen years…
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Originally Posted by k1052
I didn't think the money can be reassigned to projects that hadn't been submitted when the funding rounds were done. IIRC, the money has to be given to a project that was only partially or not funded in that round of applications. Someone feel free to clarify this if I'm wrong.
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I’m was just assuming the debate over returning funds would take long enough for Congress pass something rescinding the funds if they were returned—it’s more a worst-case scenario than anything else, but somewhat likely if we have unified Republican control of the federal government in 2013.