Not so friendly reminder that musk specifically came up with, and pushed, for hyperloop knowing that it would never be made, as an effort to stop the development of highspeed rail in America and shift all political discussions of it because "something better is around the corner":
As I’ve written in my book, Musk admitted to his biographer Ashlee Vance that Hyperloop was all about trying to get legislators to cancel plans for high-speed rail in California—even though he had no plans to build it. Several years ago, Musk said that public transit was “a pain in the ass” where you were surrounded by strangers, including possible serial killers, to justify his opposition.
Also: 2024 update, the total length of China's high-speed rail tracks has now reached well over 45,000 km, or 28,000 miles, by the end of 2023.
They are additionally five years ahead of schedule and expect to double the total number within ten years. And, before someone inevitably complains about "how expensive it is", they are turning over a net-profit of over $600M USD a year.
California's ENTIRE ANNUAL REVENUES are something like $150-150 billion. You'd have to dramatically increase taxes, and if you're going to do that, why not spend it on education, or homelessness?
Why not just spend less on killing Muslims?
California isn't killing any Muslims.
The federal government pays Californian companies to make bombs. They also enlist and pay Californian residents to use those bombs, or otherwise get them in the hands of someone that will.
Instead, the federal government should pay Californian residents to do peaceful things. Like build trains.
Ok, whatever, but it's not.
So, as I said in my initial comment, we're building what we can, as we can afford it.