Don’t you consider it wise to prepare a fallback alternative and cost it out? Chances are that the hsr budget will have to be pared. The entire pro-CHSRA camp is basing their intransigeance on the California economy staging a dramatic recovery, a questionable assumption. California booms always degenerate into a bubble, which when it bursts put so many “ünderwater”. Do you really want that again? Overspend, waste money on boondoggles, and that’s what you’ll get.

Grapevine bs – just al lot shorter and faster. How come the I-5 is not in the Tehachapis if that route is so much superior?

Ever driven up the grapevine? It’s steep, and it’s very winding. Those types of conditions work fine for freeways. Not so much for HSR.

I once experienced such “dissonance” myself. Years ago, I read – in English – that the tramway (streetcar) service in Hiroshima was resumed on August 9, 1945 – that is, three days after the atomic bomb attack.

I could not begin to imagine how such a thing could be possible – to say the least. Yet the source was impeccable – the late Gordon J. Thompson, perhaps the most knowledgeable U.S. “expert” on Japanese transportation; his Japanese-born wife was very much a “co-expert.” As such, I could not discount the statement. In time, I came across a magazine article (in Japanese) that described the event and confirmed Gordon’s report.

Bechtel conspiracy – see BART to SFO for modus operandi

Still waiting for your answer why BART prefers concrete to berms.

Didn’t you answer to yourself?

Hell yeah. As someone who has visited Japan, I feel very superior upon hearing that few Americans do the same.

Kopp-Diridon – You have to hang the responsibility for the CHSRA plan on somebody -unless you want to claim it was produced by a computer(“Random Phase Generator”?)

Bogus cost assertions – Double is about right – see Bay Bridge

I-5 bogus Could be a whole lot cheaper because the Division of Highways has already done all the dirty work securing and building the ROW. And is already environmentally devastated – contain the blight.

Grapevine bs – just al lot shorter and faster. How come the I-5 is not in the Tehachapis if that route is so much superior?

Bechtel conspiracy – see BART to SFO for modus operandi

subsidence on berms – all fill is prone to subsidence – building codes reflect this fact of life. Still waiting for your answer why BART prefers concrete to berms.

Uh, huh, yeah, right.

During the late ’70s, the “L.A. Times” published at least two very good articles about the share of U.S. adults who had valid passports. The articles explained that the State Department kept track of the number of passports each year, but not the number of adults who had them. The articles then explained, in reasonable detail, how estimates were prepared. Result: the more recent of the two stated that 13 percent of U.S. adults had valid passports. I’m hazy about this, but I seem to recall that the earlier article gave a single-digit figure, I have faint recollections of 8 percent.

My point: the “see it firsthand” theory is wishful thinking, at very best.

Related point: “Japan Allergy.” There are good statistics available on the number of U.S. citizens who visit various overseas destinations each year. Among these, Japan ranks near the bottom in “popularity” among U.S. travelers. There are also good statistics that establish that Japanese ranks consistently as the “least studied” among “major world languages” (no surprises here; Japanese is a “major world language” only by virtue of the number of native speakers, not because of geographic range, like Spanish).

The “radical environmentalists” also want to curb travel, “regional” travel in particular. These people to not like to hear stories such as the one about a friend, who once commuted from his home in northwestern central Tokyo to his office – within walking distance of Shin-Yokohama Station. He had to pay the shinkansen supplement, but this he found worthwhile because of the travel-time saving (provided as much by the direct route as by “speed”). Something about “encouraging sprawl,” you see …

Bogus project cost assertions … check.

I-5 alignment bogus rationales … check.

Grapevine BS … check.

Bechtel conspiracy … check.

Made-up claims of subsidence on berms … check.

All systems green, Synonymouse Random HSR Phrase Generator … engage!