For non West Coasters who can't see the California state government's vision of spending $35+ Billion and 25+ years to build a 170 mile bullet train to connect Bakersfield
(population 410,000) to Merced
(population 90,000) with a midway stop in Fresno
(population 505,000), with an eventual plan $100+ Billion and 20 years later to expand it both ways to San Francisco and Los Angeles, it is similar in scale and scope as the following nonsensical high speed rail starter systems;
Pennsylvania: Allentown to Bedford, with a midway stop in Harrisburg for $35 Billion. If you spend another $100 Billion you can expand it 20 years later to a route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.
Deep South: Montgomery to Mobile, with a midway stop in Georgiana for $35 Billion. If you spend another $100 Billion you can expand it 20 years later to a route from Atlanta to New Orleans.
Midwest: Madison to Eau Claire, with a midway stop in Wisconsin Dells for $35 Billion. If you spend another $100 Billion you can expand it 20 years later to a route from Chicago to Minneapolis.
Meanwhile, Anaheim already got snookered 15 years ago into building a large and expensive
($185 Million in 2014 dollars!) southern terminal for a California High Speed Rail system that will likely never show up. Anaheim's high speed rail terminal now sits mostly abandoned, and is used only for dwindling numbers on Metrolink commuter trains that previously called at a modest platform next to parking lot a few hundred yards away.
The 2008 plan to build a monorail line from Anaheim's high speed rail station to the Disneyland Resort was also abandoned years ago.
The city is counting on restaurant leases, advertising and the sale of corporate naming rights to fund the ongoing cost of operating its massive new train depot. But what if no one wants to go inside?
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