[MrFlynn]

Unless you wanted to build an HSR line through a long coastal mountain range most of way from SF to LA further driving up the cost, having it go the majority of the distance through a relatively flat valley definitely has its benefits. I do think that the line should have paralleled i-5 instead of going through Bakersfield and Fresno, but that's not the choice that was made.

[jbay808]

Mountain ranges didn't seem to be a problem for Japan's high speed rail network.

[MrFlynn]

That's because they mostly avoided mountains on their high speed routes. The Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen mostly follow the coastline and the Tohoku Shinkansen mostly goes through a valley. There are lines that do bore through mountain ranges, but nothing to the extent of several hundred miles as would be required for a line through the California coastal range.

[jbay808]

Except the one they're building now...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%AB%C5%8D_Shinkansen

"About 90% of the 286-kilometre (178 mi) line to Nagoya will be built underground or through tunnels"

[Gibbon1]

I feel like this sort of thing just proves that the problem with building high speed rail in the US is cultural[1] and political[2] not technical or economic.

[1] Americans have been carefully propagandized to believe that governments can't do anything right. And cars represent manhood and freedom.

[2] For instance Ubber and Lift are funding the same anti public transportation organizations the Koch brother(s) were.

[WillPostForFood]

Americans have been carefully propagandized to believe that governments can't do anything right

Then the people decide to give the government a chance, pass a proposition asking for rail, and then the government completely screws it up. Terrible route, corrupt, massively over budget, graft, and effectively cancelled after a decade of waste and work. So now even progressive people in progressive California are thinking the government can't so anything right, not because of propaganda, but because they see the failure.

[MrFlynn]

And the current estimated cost of that hsr system exceeds the estimated cost of the entire 520 mi (840 km) phase 1 system in California. Imagine scaling the cost of a similar design to travel the distance from SF to LA, ignoring the fact that the Japanese tend to build these grand infrastructure projects far more cost effectively than we do.

[HenryKissinger]

As someone who loves tunnels, I'm going to write myself a note to try this line when I make my first trip to Japan.

[m4rtink]

Well, then definitely try the Kurobe Gorge mountain railway! It's a originally industrial railway in a deep valley that was used for dam construction. On the hour long journey it goes through none less than 42 tunnels & the view (when not underground :) ) is breathtaking. :)

[rangibaby]

The maglev Shinkansen is literally a tunnel bored from Tokyo to Nagoya

[lmm]

Huh? They absolutely were. Cities that look close on a map can easily take 3x long as you would think to get to by train because the high speed line goes a long way around (or, in the case of e.g. Nagasaki, because there's no high speed line there at all).

[Gibbon1]

Bakersfield and Fresno metro's are about half a million people each. And also the current planned route is close to Santa Cruz and Monterrey Counties which adds another 3/4 of a million people.

No matter how you slice it the original route is going to leave some people out.

[MrFlynn]

If you count Gilroy as close to Santa Cruz and Monterrey, then sure. But the planned line does take a hard east turn through the Pacheco pass into the central valley south of Gilroy.

[beamatronic]

Not only that but you could put housing there