“Someone should do something about this someday”, said John McAlister, a true visionary and leader in our town.

The politicians who jumped on board high-speed rail years ago did not really consider the speed, the demand or the cost. Imagine a train traveling through Mountain View at 100-150 mph - stopping for no one! It would block traffic and create more business only for the mortuary.

@ High on speed (Cuesta Park):

Caltrain maxes out at 75 mph right now. Assuming the same number of trains, wouldn't traveling at 150 mph reduce the fatalities? After all, the trains would spend half the time traversing the grade crossing. Most of the fatalities are deliberate anyhow, not accidental.

@Reader X: yes, well over 90% of Caltrain fatalities are ultimately — if not immediately — ruled suicide-by-train. Caltrain maxes out at 79 mph today. HSR, and possibly electrified Caltrain in the future, are planned to run at speeds up to 110 mph on the Peninsula. That increased speed should be no more dangerous than 79 mph, since crossing gate warning times would be equivalent and since you are no more dead when hit by 110 mph train as by a 79 mph train.

Now that the State is throwing a sop (a consolation prize) to the Valley and big labor by continuing to construct a rail line to and from nowhere, I suggest doing the following to make it FAR more practical than HSR. Build an electric rail line identical to future Caltrain. Standard electrical commuter locomotives and cars, not ultra-expensive custom rolling stock. Max speed 80 mph or so. Standard rail bed. Standard at-grade crossings. The proposed line will only be a little over 100 miles, so it can be created as a normal commuter line and not a long distance HSR line. Also, this would kill HSR in the Valley as well as in LA and the Bay Area and make it far more difficult for ignorant idealists and business/labor interests to try to resurrect it.

Since our public/private partnerships like Caltrain are completely corrupt, let me make a prediction:

The $2,000,000,000 in funds will not be anywhere near enough to electrify the tracks, and we will have a funding fight in the future. The Bay Bridge replacement was expected to cost $1 billion, ended up costing $6.4 billion. The high speed rail ballooned to $77 billion before turning into a works project. $2 billion for about 140 miles is about $14 million per mile. There are too many mouths feeding from that pot for that amount of money to be sufficient, despite seeming like an astoundingly large sum.

The Honolulu Star Advertiser is reporting the 3X over budget Honolulu Rail Project has received a subpoena from the federal government.

"The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation has been served with a sweeping federal subpoena seeking construction documents in connection with the $9.2 billion rail project, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser has learned"

Link: Web Link

(The posts in the comments section have an all too familiar ring to them)

This kind of puts Newsom's recent move into a whole new light. Are federal subpoenas also in the works for the failed over-budget CalHSR project?