California's high speed rail project has been criticized for starting its first section in the state's central valley and connecting to small towns. But this piece argues that's exactly the right way to do it.
The two small cities it will connect are actually on opposite ends of some bigger cities, meaning they will be connected to those larger job and commerce centers. This is how German high speed rail developed.
"If he meant Borden and Corcoran, the two rural end points of the line, they have a combined population somewhere north of 25,000. But the main stations along this first stretch of the system won't be in Borden and Corcoran. They'll be in Fresno and Hanford and, eventually, Bakersfield. Metropolitan Fresno alone (942,000) dwarfs Anaheim (354,000).
Population numbers aren't the point, though, because the short rural section is just a slow start to something large and complicated - which is the right way to build high-speed rail, if you look at the systems in Europe."
FULL STORY: California’s High-Speed Rail Won’t Go Nowhere
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Municipality of Princeton
Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission
City of Mt Shasta
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
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Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
US High Speed Rail Association
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
Municipality of Princeton (NJ)