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The California High Speed Rail Authority uploaded an hour of progress shots over lo-fi music (youtu.be)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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This channel normally posts board meetings and short progress updates on specific sections of the project in a pretty dry way. This is the first time I've seen them lean into a more engaging method of getting the word out.

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[-] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Many billion dollar overruns but its lofi.

[-] [email protected] 26 points 3 weeks ago

It's because the project has been sabotaged by everyone from wealthy landowners to Elon Musk. They weren't even able to begin construction until 2015 because of bullshit lawsuits and a lot of the cost over on is because land more expensive between 2008 and 2015, many of the people filing lawsuits just wanted a biger emenint domain check

[-] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

It was a joke. One would think a project with such scale wouldn't have to use "low fidelity" music, and could use "hi-fi" music.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Unfortunately, the people that see the headlines about this project would have no idea. They assume the whole “government bad” thing.

[+] [email protected] -8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

California's high speed rail program has done more to discredit high speed rail in the US than any fossil fuel company ad campaign possibly could. Twenty fucking years and not a single operational track. Current estimates are, by 2035, they will have connected Merced and Bakersfield (for those of you not familiar with California, that's from nowhere to nowhere) and spent 40 billion dollars in the process.

But yeah, cool meme I guess.

[-] [email protected] 26 points 3 weeks ago

That's what elon musk wants you to think. It was sabotaged by BS lawsuits for decades.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago

and it's being built on the west coast, some of the most expensive property values in the USA, coupled with musk's bullshit and some of the toughest env regulations.

you want it fast? eminent domain the entire line. don't like taking people's houses for the purpose of advancing society? well something's gotta give, apparently that's time.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago

The Big Dig in Boston began planning phases in 1982, and was estimated at $2.8 billion in 1985. It was scheduled to be completed in 1998, but was actually completed in 2007 at a cost of $21.5 billion. From original conception to completion, that's 25 years and a 768% cost increase (289% adjusted for inflation).

That seems eggregious until you realize the economic impact eclipses the original costs by an order of magnitude via development of the Seaport, North Station, Cambridge Crossing, Assembly Square, Fenway, and Allston, not to mention the health impact of replacing a traffic-snarled viaduct in the heart of the city with 30 acres of parks.

As a disclaimer, I also realize that the Big Dig was almost exclusively a highway capacity project. I'm not saying that it was an ideal project in that respect. I'm also not saying that we should ignore the corruption, safety issues, and cost & time overruns, but if we can all agree that these projects are worth doing even if it's an ugly process, maybe we get fewer overruns and the process is a little less ugly. The cynicism and pessimism that we approach mega projects with is, IMO, part of the problem.

this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2025

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