Reddit reviews BART: The Dramatic History of the Bay Area Rapid Transit System

California: Our bullet train project simply refuses to die, with a state court shutting down yet another legal challenge. The state also sold its first bonds from Prop 1A to fund construction of the initial phases, already under construction in the Central Valley. Meanwhile the CEO of the rail authority is resigning after 5 years, stating that it's time for fresh leadership.

Also Jerry Brown signed our huge gas tax bill to fund infrastructure, with the money intended for roads, bridges, and culverts repairs, as well as public transit, and commuter and intercity rail.

The Trump administration promised to deliver big infrastructure projects, and meanwhile California is doing it by itself.

I'm reading an interesting book about the history of the BART system, and the parallels to the bullet train project are striking. It's easy to take BART for granted today - it's more than just an "alternative," it's a backbone of the region and it's difficult to overstate how much we depend on it. But there was a time when the project was considered a historic boondoggle. At one point it was even faced with a major funding gap after construction was already underway, due to inflation and revised cost estimates. It took none other than Ronald Reagan passing a major spending bill to close the funding gap.

I'm currently reading this book and it's very fascinating.

BART was the first new mass transit system in the US for decades when it was built. They tried to revolutionize the way subways were built and the way people use them. On many accounts they succeeded resoundingly, on others they made mistakes and false predictions that linger to this day.

I'm in the middle of reading this book right now and all the arguments you're making against HSR have a direct analogue from NIMBYs who opposed BART.

"Boondoggle," "train to nowhere," "waste of money," "obsolete," "runaway government spending"...these terms are peppered throughout that book. And yet here we are today, not only benefiting from BART but completely reliant upon it.

I'm very happy we didn't listen to them, and I hope we have the sense to ignore people like you, too.

edit: I'm not a cheerleader for any and every transit project. In fact I think most of the "flagship" transit projects being built in the country right now are wasteful - especially downtown streetcars which are in vogue right now. They're slow, expensive, and offer no benefits compared to bus service except the aesthetic.

I'm glad Oakland didn't build a streetcar, and instead opted for true BRT along International Blvd.

HSR isn't wasteful, though. Expensive, yes, certainly. It's clearly expensive. And it's clearly disruptive. But those are the kinds of costs we need to be willing to bear if we want truly modern infrastructure. HSR is crucial if our state doubles in population over then next ~40 years, which it's predicted to do. Our freeways and airports can't handle that kind of growth. HSR is like BART for the state - it will connect the downtown district of every major city in the entire state and virtually shrink California.