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>>1940865 Once upon a time Marin county really wanted to be part of the Bart network, but they were stymied by one person who hated trains and a fuck ton of corruption. Now you'd be hard pressed to find anyone living there that would support making it easier for poor people to travel north. I would have really liked to take Bart from Sonoma County into SF.
https://seungylee14.substack.com/p/how-bart-on-the-golden-gate-bridgeCalifornia may be a single party state but the NIMBYs and richfags will do everything in their power to deny poor people mobility or shelter in their zip code. That mentality informs most policies in the state; it has to benefit richfags and the corps they probably work for, or satisfy an ulterior political motive to gain traction. Long distance hsr that competes with the airlines however is a different story. I would be shocked if the Cali HSR is operating in any capacity by the time the Shinkansen is running into Sapporo. Even if most people will still have to drive to & from either end, an SF to LA rail route is totally viable for transit between those cities, just not necessarily financially.
American airlines are bad, getting to the airport and going through security is time consuming, and the general experience of flying in America will only continue to get worse. As long as they don't fuck it up with airport style security, people will notice and appreciate the reduced friction and reduction of buffer time needed to make the trip. That all assumes there is both regular business travel and enough tourist travel for sustainable ridership. Remote work and the flight from the bay area cities will severely limit total ridership. Pre-pandemic Bart was almost in the black even with all it's problems and schizoids, now that ridership has cratered it's going to need life support until further notice. The HSR will most likely never be profitable or ever break even, requiring indefinite subsidies.