huh? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Spain is one country about the size of California
> from San Diego to about Willits or Chico south to
> north (Gibraltar to the French border). Its
> population is not spread out in urban centers the
> way California's is; the cities are somewhat more
> compact and more concentrated in the middle of the
> country and the east/south. It's part of the EU,
> where things are generally close together and
> there's a tradition of rail use. The Spanish rail
> budget is around what Biden wants to spend on the
> whole US, and is focused on "one true HS line"
> according to the story (which isn't quite true -
> Spain has a HS network integrated with its regular
> train network, not Just One Line - really, they
> did it more or less like Bob2 would like to see it
> done). Um ... different strokes?
>
> Some of the numbers are way out of date. How old
> is this story, really? Did they resurrect it on
> 3/22/24 from some archive?
>
> You could argue, of course, that the California
> state-only economy is far bigger than Spain's,
> which is true depending on how you define GDP
> (California's "GDP" is nearly $4 trillion), making
> it the 5th largest in the world). So California
> should have the money to do HSR all by itself.
> Which it might, if it did not choose to spend it
> on other things, like the large number of people
> that live here (not really on taxes, despite being
> one of the highest-taxed states - the US in
> general, including the states, is not a high-tax
> country - how many of us, really, pay more than
> 50% of our income in taxes, not including VAT or
> sales, which is a pretty common number in
> Europe?).
>
> The truly crazy high price of building big public
> works projects in the US (unlike in Spain) of
> course contributes to the lack of progress.
> Politics makes a not-insignificant contribution,
> too. So yes, there are choices that can be made to
> improve HSR. But I don't see it happening any time
> soon, failure of Boeing or otherwise.
>
> BTW, note that a bunch of the McD-D refugees that
> have been running Boeing into the ground,
> including the CEO, are being forced out. There is,
> perhaps, some hope that the company might be
> salvaged, which would be good news for the Keep
> Burning The Fossil Fuels crowd.

Spain, is much more dispersed in multiple centers, than CA, but not just the north, and with a number of long moderately populated coastal corridors, on the Med coast not unlike LOSSAN.

Costs have also been a huge issue in Spain. But nothing like the CAHSRA's bloated gold plated "runaway money train" fiasco here. This is probably because !) Spain had a well used passenger rail system, which had experience with managing rail projects, as well as, 2) a political "check" on wasting and/or stealing so much on "gold plating" their HSR system, that is would take resouurces from the existing services, and the voters who ride them. This is unlike in CA, where our well used regional systems are a political "afterthought", as we have seen with the situation that has developed over the years of neglect of LOSSAN "needs".

Unlike CA, Spain also built an interediate speed range HSR system, to upgrade services, based on actual observed travel needs and cost benefits. Spain did not build a system madating speed, regardless of costs (either to build or to ride), or of benefits to CA travelers, taxpayers, riders, or voters.

The Spanish HSR history is one of upgrades, gauge changes, interoperabiity with the existing well used rail passenger system. In CA, HSR is based on a purely political "need" for "speed", not on most of the actual travel demands or deficiencies we observe.

This nonsense about Boeing (a scandal, an embarrassment, a disaster for stockholders, and possibly even a crime or two...), and resultant fear of flying, is indeed pure twaddle as a justification for HSR.

Puppies are good, people like puppies, and politicians all like puppies, too.....