California will begin construction this week on the first part of a high-speed rail system that will eventually connect Los Angeles and San Francisco. In a press release published last week, the California High-Speed Rail Authority said work on the network will officially begin on Tuesday after a ceremonial groundbreaking in the city of Fresno. The first 29-mile segment will be built in the Central Valley in order to begin testing the system. When the $68 billion project is completed, passengers will be able to travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in under three hours.



This week's ceremony comes after years of delays and legal battles over the system, which has proven to be a divisive issue among California's political leadership. Construction was supposed to began two years ago, but was delayed over land acquisitions and disputes over funding. The system is now set to be completed by 2028, though as the Los Angeles Times reports, officials still need to secure full funding, and Republicans in Congress have said they will not commit federal money to it.



http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/5/749...-san-francisco



lmao holy crap 13 years and 68 billion

 

That price is actually fairly low since they're basically just using the existing Shinkansen infrastructure. If they need to R&D it would be several times more expensive. But the Shinkansen is a reliable, well rounded technology, so the move to borrow what is already known good makes sense. I hope this leads to a national network. It's almost as fast as air travel, significantly less expensive to operate and fully compatible (at low speeds) with our existing standard gauge track. It's really a no-brainier IMHO.

 

Boondoggle here we come! If I were a bookmaker I'd give even odds on a doubling of projected costs, not sure if I'd risk money on triple but it could happen.