Quote of the Day
Move over, high-speed rail! California’s central transportation planners have a new idea for connecting the state’s major population centers of Los Angeles and San Francisco: high-speed buses!
Here’s the Bay Area’s ABC7 News‘ report on Caltrans’ concept for having passengers ride at up to 140 miles per hour between the two cities:
In the case of Caltrans’s new high-speed bus transportation concept, they may well be repeating the farce that The Onion wrote sixteen years earlier.
And you thought Hollywood had no new ideas.
Craig Eyermann
August 11, 2026
<snort>
California has spent about $15 billion so far on the high-speed rail system. Zero miles of actual track has been laid. It has completed about 80 miles of guideway (concrete viaducts, bridges, embankments). The distance between the phase one end points of San Francisco -> Los Angles -> Anaheim is 494 miles. The currently projected cost is $126–231 billion, depending upon scope.
I have some serious questions about the feasibility of 140 MPH buses which are safe and fuel efficient. The physics of a 150 MPH train are much different than that of a bus. With a difference of 70 MPH between such a bus and the cars the buses would require their own road. Even then it would be a nightmare to create those roads. Here is what Copilot says about the two mountain passes planned for the rail system:
1. Pacheco Pass (Diablo Range)
Location: Between Gilroy and Los Banos Purpose: Connects the Bay Area to the Central Valley Challenges:
- Steep terrain requiring long tunnels and viaducts
- Seismic faults
- Sensitive environmental areas (reservoirs, wildlife corridors)
- Complex geotechnical conditions
This segment is expected to include tunnels up to ~13 miles long, making it one of the most expensive parts of the northern half of the route.
2. Tehachapi Mountains (Tehachapi Pass)
Location: Between Bakersfield and Palmdale Purpose: Connects the Central Valley to Southern California Challenges:
- Extremely rugged terrain
- Multiple active seismic faults
- Long tunnels and tall viaducts
- Curvature constraints for 200+ mph trains
This segment is even more complex than Pacheco Pass. The alignment requires dozens of miles of tunnels and viaducts, making it one of the most expensive rail engineering projects in U.S. history.
Not only that, no 140 MPH bus exists. If it did exist it could not use the existing freeway, not even the area between the current opposite lanes. This is because the curves are too tight. There are a host of other issues. It would be more of a rubber‑tired train and require dedicated infrastructure.
The physical shape would have to be much different. Here is what one of Japan’s high-speed trains looks like:
Last March Barb and I were on one of these going over 170 MPH:
Very cool. But it was on level land and with Japanese almost obsessive attention to detail.
California cannot get a train line built and the think they can create some brand-new technology that is going to function with far less than ideal ground conditions? These are not rational people. These are people who are out of touch with reality. To them, feelings are just as valid as numbers and the laws of physics. Perhaps even more so, because I don’t think they understand numbers.
Y’know…..if California wants to do this, USING ONLY CALIFORNIA MONEY and not a penny of anyone else’s, let ’em go for it.
Cali has a nearly infinite number of other very pressing needs all of which are demanding money they don’t have, but if they think this wild-ass fantasy is a prudent way to spend THEIR OWN MONEY, I’ll sit back and watch. Self-inlicted wounds can be entertaining.
As to whomever winds up *trying to run* California when the dollars go so negative there’s no possible recovery, or even the remote possibility of maintaining stasis, my condolences, but that will be entertaining, too.
Assuming it’s not the PRC, but I doubt even they have enough money to bail out Cali. Maybe midwestern states can bid on sections of Caifornia to add beachfront resorts and large sections of fertile farmland to Milwaukee, Des Moines and Little Rock.
“Cali has a nearly infinite number of other very pressing needs all of which are demanding money they don’t have, but if they think this wild-ass fantasy is a prudent way to spend THEIR OWN MONEY, I’ll sit back and watch. Self-inlicted wounds can be entertaining.”
You understand, no buses will actually run, right? That’s not the point or the goal.
Somebody not benefiting from the “high speed rail” grift said to themselves, “Hmm, how do I get in on that when it’s already full?”
And this was their attempt at an answer. That’s all it is.
Schnellbuss. Jawhol.
The building isn’t the point.
The funding is.
Lots of commissions, studies, legal work.
All funneling workers money to the laptop class.
Just a different proposal for graft. Lining politicians pockets and those that they favor with taxpayer dollars.
If these clowns were interested in serving the public they would add an additional lane going both North and South to both highway 5 and highway 99 and maintain the road surfaces better than downtown Mogadishu
Hold my beer.
I know a couple of redneck motorheads that could build a 140 MPH bus. Might not turn or stop, but it would go like a bat out of hell.
The go fast part for a short time isn’t the hard part. Can you put a million miles on it? Is the maintenance reasonable? Braking probably has to be regenerative, or it is a high-maintenance item. The “road” over the mountain passes and through fault zones will be another set of challenges.