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Originally Posted by wakamesalad
Has anyone been keeping up with LA's train station progress? I know they are building a ton of subway lines, but how practical are they? It's a shame that HSR will terminate at what will most likely be a rental car office. Imagine SF being connected to a city like NY, Boston, or even Portland. Actually a Portland Seattle extension (and, ideally, Vancouver) would excite me more because of the rail and transit oriented planning of those cities, and their economies would boom with direct HSR to SF.
Does anyone know the plans to connect SF with Sacramento?
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They are ok. Most of them are light rail lines, not really typical subway tech like BART, so they actually go pretty slowly (given that LA is freaking huge) and many travel on surface streets for part of their length slowing them down a lot (kind of like the MUNI light rail lines in SF, though the LA ones are definitely faster than MUNI). I have no idea what you are referring to rental cars for? HSR will eventually go from the TTC in SF to Union Station in LA, with spurs to San Diego and Sacramento after that. California is a MASSIVE economy all by itself, it doesn't need to connect with any other states for its rail system to be a boon. Even if HSR doesn't happen right away, there are still countless plans for regional rail.
I think this is the eventual plan from the MTC for train service to San Francisco. They will need a second transbay tube before about 2040 (the current one will reach capacity), so they are planning on having the new tube carry standard gauge rail as well, and are considering BART lines down Geary. This will allow commuter rail and intercity rail to reach the City. They have plans for the new subway line to come in on different SF streets on its way to Geary, such as Folsom or Townsend, in order for it to connect with the TTC. Caltrain can connect to East Bay, Some Capitol Corridor trains with hybrid locomotives can access SF. Suffice to say, pretty exciting long range future for San Francisco!