But what a pick-your-own opportunity for the orchards.
From the New York Post, September 21:
California’s $231 billion High-Speed Rail dream could hit a literal dead end at a remote Central Valley orchard.
The state’s long-troubled bullet train could be forced to dramatically shrink its first operating segment, potentially leaving both Merced and Bakersfield off the initial route as the project barrels toward a massive cash crunch.
Instead, California may have to pour its remaining money into completing a much smaller stretch of track between Madera and Poplar Avenue in rural Kern County, an isolated endpoint surrounded largely by farmland and orchards, project Inspector General Benjamin Belnap told KCRA’s California Politics 360.
The drastic downsizing could become reality if the California High-Speed Rail Authority runs through its available funding as projected by December 2027.
Without another infusion of cash from Sacramento, officials may have little choice but to abandon, at least temporarily, plans to connect the first operating segment all the way from Merced to Bakersfield and focus their dwindling resources on the shorter Central Valley stretch.
The warning represents another potential setback for the decades-in-the-making bullet train, whose original vision was to whisk passengers between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
With enough money no longer available to complete that vision in the short term, the state has focused on getting a 171-mile Merced-to-Bakersfield segment up and running. That portion alone is expected to cost as much as $36 billion.
But even that scaled-back goal could be in jeopardy....
....MUCH MORE
I may have been overly-enthusiastic about the pick-your-own opportunity.
The only orchards on the market anywhere near the future choo-choo are almonds and cherries.
And no matter how yummy the almonds I don't think folks would have the patience to pick 'em. One almond...two almonds...three almonds...four...
I'll console myself reminiscing about what France's high-speed-rail experts said, lo those many years (and billions) ago:
....The state was warned repeatedly that its plans were too complex. SNCF, the French national railroad, was among bullet train operators from Europe and Japan that came to California in the early 2000s with hopes of getting a contract to help develop the system.
The company’s recommendations for a direct route out of Los Angeles and a focus on moving people between Los Angeles and San Francisco were cast aside, said Dan McNamara, a career project manager for SNCF.
The company pulled out in 2011. “There were so many things that went wrong,” Mr. McNamara said. “SNCF was very angry. They told the state they were leaving for North Africa, which was less politically dysfunctional. They went to Morocco and helped them build a rail system.”
Morocco’s bullet train started service in 2018.....
There you have it, North Africa is less politically corrupt than California. Just amazing.
