Letters to the Editor: High-speed rail will be the backbone of a climate-friendly California

To the editor: Editorial board member Karin Klein’s piece on the climate implications of holiday air travel, appearing a day after The Times published a selection of poorly considered objections to California’s high-speed rail project, is a near-perfect rejoinder to the anti-”bullet train” balderdash.

California high-speed rail is not a “one off” effort, but rather the beginning of a transformational approach to climate-friendly travel. When connected to a system of electrified subways, light rail systems and bus rapid transit lines, high-speed rail becomes the backbone of a sustainable system.

Furthermore, to call the initial route from Bakersfield to Merced “a train to nowhere” is deeply unfair to residents of the Central Valley.

Carl Kim Allender, Glendale

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To the editor: Our country made a massive mistake favoring highways and cars in the 1940s and 50s. Riding around Europe in high-speed rail is convenient, amazing and enjoyable.

One of the letter writers asked why people would take a three-hour train ride from Los Angeles to San Francisco when a plane takes one hour.

Because it’s never one hour in a plane: You drive to LAX, find parking, get through security, get to your gate, wait for your plane (hope it is on time or not rescheduled), board your plane and sit for between 15 and 30 minutes before taking off, then you run the gauntlet upon arriving at your destination.

We definitely need federal support to make this happen, but this project is long overdue.

Brian Aguilar, West Sacramento, Calif.

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To the editor: Sure, it seems strange to start the bullet train with the “in-between” connecting line in the Central Valley rather than building the infrastructure at each end, both from a “greater good” and a “gather support” perspective.

But the reality is that future development of the system is at least partly dependent on the vast middle of the state, and once the Central Valley portion is done, both ends will be clamoring for viable connections.

There is no doubt that a bullet train would get ridership; the issue has always been how to get it built. I favored infrastructure at each end as the first step, but it can work either way. What we need is to get it at least nominally complete sooner than later.

Mike Gallagher, La Habra Heights