If you haven’t heard yet, in the recent elections California passed an initiative to fund a high-speed railway stretching all the way from San Francisco to San Diego. The construction will cost $10 billion and take several years, but when it’s completed it will reduce commute times dramatically and create a feasible alternative to the pollution-intensive aviation industry. Sure, it’s a lot of money, but nearly everyone thinks it’s a good idea.

Here’s why

Currently in California it takes 6 hours to drive between major cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco. If you want to take the train, the commute time jumps up to 12 hours. The plane trip is only an hour long, but you have to show up to the airport early, deal with security, and wonder if your luggage is going to get lost. You might also end up sitting on the runway for several hours due to weather or air traffic.

Though I’ve never been to California, I know these things because I’ve recently planned a trip that will take me into LA, up to SF, and then back to New Hampshire. I spent a short period living in Japan and using exclusively public transportation, so my first thought was “oh, I’ll take the train up to San Fran, get some work done, take in some nice views, and nap.”

Boy, was I wrong about that. When I logged on to the Amtrak site and searched for a trip between LA and SF I was in disbelief: Did it seriously take 11 hours? I asked my friend and got an affirmative response. To make the story less profane, I was livid. There’s absolutely no reason for a long distance train trip to take any longer than a similar drive. In fact, considering the time that you have to show up at the airport by, it should be comparable to flying for that distance.

The solution

Now, that’s more like it, California. With this rail system in place the LA to SF trip should only take 2 hours and 40 minutes. I would change in my plane ticket for a ride on that in a heartbeat. Perhaps in the future we’ll see something like this on the East Coast connecting major cities like Boston, NYC, and Philadelphia.

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