Political and engineering will first, with cost a secondary concern (but still wielded as a reason not to). It makes sense, with enough clean energy, based on the cost of emissions offset by freight rail electrification to expend the capital required. Perhaps issue green government backed bonds to pay for it or print some more money. But we can’t build large infra projects in the US anymore, for a combination of reasons: nuclear power plants, California high speed rail, etc. [1] [2] [3]
Personally, I would prefer electrified freight rail, I’m just unsure if the US knows how or can do it. I suggested third rail if the cost came down because in America, you can usually coax towards the right solution if you can show drastic cost savings/reductions (see the rapid renewables uptake as costs declined over the last decade). At a glance, it seems easier to throw down a third rail while doing track work versus the construction effort for thousands of miles of overhead gantries and 25kv power lines. You could pair this with HVDC transmission lines looking to use railroad right of ways to avoid NIMBYS (the SOO HVDC line in the Midwest, for example [4]), for power accessibility.
I'm not sure that CAHSR is an example of why we can't build infrastructure. They're building it. There are YouTubers that have done drone flyovers of most of the first construction packages, and progress is being made pretty quickly. I have a feeling that too much has been done to cancel the project now. The corresponding Bay Area projects seem to be proceeding as well (CalMod, CalTrain electrification, etc).
Texas Central also seems to be making progress on Dallas-Houston high speed rail.
That said, I agree that the taxpayers don't feel like giving billions of dollars to BNSF and Union Pacific, so they probably won't electrify until there is no other option. Fuel costs just aren't high enough to make it profitable, and the environmental externalities are still free. (But, of course, you'd rather see a 500 car freight train burning fossil fuels than 500 tractor trailers driving down the interstate burning fossil fuels.)
It's pretty troubled project. Way over budget and when it opens in 2025 you will be able to go only as far as Bakersfield. The last section to LA is still in "environmental review" (ie fighting the Nimbies).
Yeah, that's a good assessment. It is troubled, but I don't think you can do big projects without trouble. Think about how high tensions can get when planning a two week software engineering sprint. Now imagine a project that's a million times bigger than that, where people will have their houses torn down. There's going to be some trouble. What is amazing that despite the trouble, some progress is being made.
(There are lots of things working against CAHSR. The route has been chosen politically rather than to minimize SFO-LAX travel times. Given infinite budget, you travelers on that route don't want to go through Bakersfield, as it's out of the way. And, the SFO/LAX city pair is already not a particularly optimal pair, it is kind of reaching the high end of distances that make high-speed rail the best travel option. That's why I look at Texas Central and Brightline for models of what to do in the future. Texas Central is a really good city pairing, in a region where their 16 lane highways can't handle the traffic volume. But I temper my enthusiasm in that not a lot of construction work has been done; I can't find any updates newer than September 2021 when the CEO said pessimistically that there is only a 50/50 chance that construction will start in the next 6 months. We're near the end of those 6 months.)
I just saw a blurb that they've just finished pouring the last foundation for the overhead catenary system.
Currently half of the work going on right now is grade separation that includes both the future high speed rail line and the current freight rail line. So there is some method to their madness. The grade separation provides immediate benefits.
The US government used to be able to create top notch infrastructure but something seemed to just break in the 1970s/80s.
Unless things get so catastrophically bad (see Katrina) it is impossible to convince anyone to spend money.
The government is spending money on infrastructure, it's just not very good infrastructure. You can open up any state's department of transportation website and find billions of dollars worth of ongoing projects for widening roads. These are not the projects people dream about, but they do satisfy the people that are invested in the suburbs. A lot of advocacy revolves around "live in a dense urban core, work in a dense urban core, and travel to other dense urban cores", and people just aren't doing that, so it does make some sense that politicians with 2 year terms aren't champing at the bit to do those projects instead of "widen congested freeway" (even though we know that never solves the problem).
> it is impossible to convince anyone to spend money.
They don't need to be convinced to spend money. They are spending more than ever. But you're dead on about it all being crisis-driven now. Or maybe it always was? WWII was clearly that, then the cold war/space race, then Star Wars, then GWAT (or GWOT?) -- Global War Against/On Terrorism, and now Covid - Build Back Better. Crisis spending is perfect cover for pork and grift, because anyone who questions it can be painted as unpatriotic.
Personally, I would prefer electrified freight rail, I’m just unsure if the US knows how or can do it. I suggested third rail if the cost came down because in America, you can usually coax towards the right solution if you can show drastic cost savings/reductions (see the rapid renewables uptake as costs declined over the last decade). At a glance, it seems easier to throw down a third rail while doing track work versus the construction effort for thousands of miles of overhead gantries and 25kv power lines. You could pair this with HVDC transmission lines looking to use railroad right of ways to avoid NIMBYS (the SOO HVDC line in the Midwest, for example [4]), for power accessibility.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/28/us/infrastructure-megapro...
[2] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/mega-proj...
[3] https://www.vox.com/22534714/rail-roads-infrastructure-costs...
[4] https://www.soogreenrr.com/about/