eolesen wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 2:15 am
Anything bought new for CAHSR on the Central Valley would be functionally obsolete by the time there's actual LA-SF service. I can see where renovating the Acelas for CAHSR might look good compared to that, but it's a waste of money to even be installing catenary and substations until the extensions to LA and SF are funded, land acquired and actually under construction. 2033 is the target date, which on that particular project probably means 2040.
If it would be a waste of money to install the overhead catenary system (OCS) before interconnecting LA & SF, why are they building the tracks now? The whole point of building in the Valley was to demonstrate an active HSR train to Californians as cheap as possible so they can convince taxpayers to borrow more money by selling more bonds in another new referendum.
You can not demonstrate HSR without HSR trainsets, new or used. You can not run HSR trainsets without an OCS. You can not run HSR trains without laying new straighter track. You need a complete package to demonstrate HSR.
I agree any rolling stock bought new now will be obsolete by the time even Phase 1 is complete, which is why I suggest leasing cheap used Acela train sets for the interim. They also keep with being cheap for the demonstration purposes as well. This Valley demonstration line is going to be around 130-140 miles in length, a non stop express train going 150 mph should be able to travel between the initial terminating stations in less than an hour, compared to the 3.25 hours or so it takes today. Maybe not as fast as a train going 200+ mph, but surely fast enough for demonstration purposes.
If you take the attitude that no HSR trains should run until Phase 1 construction is completed, they should not have started building Phase 1 until "all" the EIS studies had been completed and "all" the funding needed to build Phase 1 was in the bank. Once you commit to a demonstration section so construction could start, stick to that decisions and carry it through. Otherwise you are admitting to the entire world you have built a $20 billion boondoggle.