I figure, stops could be San Diego city center, somewhere in Orange County, and downtown LA. There's existing rail corridors here, ownership issues of course. Then you either follow Hwy 5 or the coast to hit Santa Barbara and Monterey, then San Francisco, then Sacramento. Hwy 5 would be much easier, no existing rail corridor but wide open to build and could do some serious speed.
I found an official State of Calif website on this.
http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/
Estimates cost $25BN, claims larger benefits.
A sketchy Wikipedia page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_high-speed_rail
An "anti" argument.
http://rational.ce.umn.edu/Projects/HSR/HSR.html
Another info page.
http://www.igs.berkeley.edu/library/htHighSpeedRail.htm
Apparently there is a bond measure set to be voted on in 2008, for $9BN to build the LA-SF segment (assumes equal Federal matching funds).
Haven't read all these, just linking, will do some reading.
Quote:
Originally posted by 2.7RACER
John,
I see a Los Angeles to Las Vegas route as a winner.
Up and down California is tough to sell because so many branch destinations.
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A LA-Vegas line would certainly be cool, too.
Besides traveling by train being way more pleasant than being cattle in a flying tube, seems a train would be less polluting and more energy-efficient. But honestly it is the miserable experience of commercial air travel that is making me want this.
(Of course, I don't even live in CA now. But you never know.)