Abandoned High Speed Rail Worldwide.

[george matthews]

My point was: if you build it, they will come

Only if there are potential travellers at each end, and at suitable places in between. London terminals so far have been at the existing places.

[ExCon90]

Maybe that's the angle the Gov is aiming for, get high speed trains running Bakersfield to Merced before his term is up , people ride it and will be demanding it be extended. I think he is right to get that section finished, rather than just continue with prep work etc on the entire route.

That seems quite likely. We've seen two examples of that, albeit on light rail, at Sacramento and Dallas. At Sacramento, there was only enough money available to build about half of the proposed route, and faced with the need to decide whether to go ahead with that or try for more money later, they decided to build what they could with what they had. When people had the chance to actually see it and ride it there was no problem finding the additional money needed. At Dallas there was a schedule for constructing a complete system, with planned target dates for each line; once the core "starter" system began operation people in other areas demanded to know why extension to their areas could not be speeded up. Somehow the necessary money was found and the construction schedule was accelerated.