I THINK I CAN: San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than 3 hours by train!
So much for all of that good time separatist rhetoric NoCalers and SoCalers are so fond of spewing at one another (ah, memories).
San Fran and LA — California’s Sam and Diane couple that have loved to hate each other for decades — are finally coming together via the 220 mph high-speed train you see above (decked out in Cal Bears’ Blue & Gold, so a clear win for the north, but I digress) sometime after 2010.
Er, so long as voters approve the ballot measure in November and the state still has $$$ to finance it, etc. etc., that is.
If this actually does come to pass, and assuming the conductors abstain from text messaging, linking the London and Paris of the West Coast will be the greatest thing to happen to the Golden State since the Selig Polyscope Company set up shop in Edendale. Imagine going between those two cities in two and a half hours — and for half a c-note? Craziness. Other stops along the way would include Sacramento, Modesto, Fresno, San Diego.
Anything to help fight the cancer that is California’s freeway traffic has to rub voters the right way. Also note that this isn’t some jerry-rigged, federalized, shady kind of an Amtrak deal. The line would be run by a dedicated state agency officially dubbed the California High Speed Rail Authority. Check out the cool video renderings at:
