I'm with you all the way on that, the flight itself is only a fraction of the time and even less of the hassle. But the latest figures I saw (sorry, don't have a link) showed that the projected high-speed train ticket price was actually quite a bit more than Southwest or JetBlue or whatever are currently charging. That was disappointing.
You've never traveled the 5 or the 101 btw LA-SF, have you. I have it down to a science. I leave early enough so as to avoid the traffic on the 5 in the middle of nowhere, the longer wait at service stops for gas, the more crowded rest stops, etc. In answer to your post, there's a shitload of ppl traveling on those 2 freeways every single day of the year. But when Southwest was trying to crush United for marketshare about 7-8 years ago and the flights were $39 each way and 4 trips = free trip anywhere, man oh man... the few times I actually drove b/c it was last minute... 'twas a lot nicer. edit: I won't even count the number of flights btw LA/Bur/OC/Ontario -- SFO/Oak/SJ/Sac'to every single day.
It appears that we're going with a Chinese company in terms of the technology and perhaps consulting. Actual construction will be in stages where the bids will be awarded to a few different contractors. Neither has been determined.
I know Bombardier is Canadien because they were bidding the BART OAC project and lost. So I guess they have a division in China. Makes me feel a little better. Call me crazy but I don't trust an all Chinese company designing a HSR in the US. Especially one I may ride on.
Schwarzenegger checks out China's high-speed rail http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100912...lYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDc2Nod2FyemVuZWdn
Florida is already underway. A Tampa Orlando link, with Miami a possibility in the future. Don't think it has much to do with China though. "There are five planned stops: downtown Tampa at the Old Morgan Street jail, Polk County, Walt Disney World (Disney donated the land for the stop), the Orlando Convention Center and the Orlando International airport." http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=137356&catid=250 "If all goes as planned, you'll be able to take the less than one hour high speed ride between Tampa and Orlando by 2015. It's estimated 2 million people will ride the high speed train each year. Still at question... how much it's going to cost you. Previous estimates put ticket costs anywhere from $10 to $30, depending on how often you ride. These numbers will likely change as Rail Enterprise continues to study ridership and what people are willing to pay to ride."
Other than the link buried in the middle of last post, unintentionally, here are two more, http://www.floridahighspeedrail.org/#new http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_High_Speed_Rail "Trains with a top speed of 168 mph (270 km/h) to 186 mph (299 km/h) would run on dedicated rail lines" "Bombardier's JetTrain technology"
As you can see in this computer generated pic, Florida is quite clever about it, building the tracks in the median of I-4.
that's what I was thinking. how do you keep the two properly apart without blocking the view out of the window? in other countries HSR is often being build close to highways, that makes a lot of sense, but not right in the middle of it. you still get the sucks-to-be-you factor, but don't run the risk of some idiot flying into you.
Heh, right now in some areas Amtrak has the opposite effect -- the last time I took Amtrak, it was from Reno to SF (Emeryville) where the tracks parallel I-80 through the mountains, and chugging along at 30-40 MPH while watching cars zoom by at 70-80, I was definitely thinking "sucks to be me".
Well at least you didn't take the train TO Reno. Going up through emigrant gap, the train slows to 5-10mph.
They can build a moat and fill it with gators, so if vehicles make it past the barrier rail the gators will make sure they don't hit the train.