Sounds like construction started in 2015? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_California_High-S....

“Single mile of track” is one of the dumbest memes ever. Yes, they lay the tracks last, because that is by far the easiest part of the project and there’s a machine that can poop out HSR tracks at 1km/hour.

> and there’s a machine that can poop out HSR tracks at 1km/hour.

Uh... not in the US, there isn't.

Sigh. Though there are definitely automated track laying machines in the US, some pieces might not meet the needs of the project and may want other machines. You can of course ship them.

Did you think CAHSR was going to lay the track by hand?

Yeah but they’re actually making progress. The project has plenty to criticize but it’s way more of a punching bag than it needs to be. The hard part is land acquisition, lawsuits, grade separations, etc. once you have that tracks are a piece of cake.

CA also is walking with basic train service. The Pacific Surfliner (3rd most used Amtrak route) and the San Joaquin (5th most used Amtrak route). Literally the 2 most used Amtrak routes outside of the northeast.

At least LOSSAN is slowly improving the Surfliner; I wish more of the focus had been on doing something like that (it's in phase 2 or 3 to completely doubletrack it from LA -> SAN but that's technically separate and Del Mar may prevent it nearly forever).

This is what zero miles of track looked like in 2022: https://youtu.be/gAZqaESaZLg

This is what zero miles of track looks like a year later: https://youtu.be/luX35wVJt84

You can today in the Central Valley look at large construction sites and structures, some of which are finished. Go 100 miles up the alignment, and see construction and structures there too. None of those sites have laid track yet, but there’s hundred of miles of trackway under development.

Track comes last.

It's understandable, and necessary, but it's also amusing that the CA HSR project has made (and opened) many miles of roads and bridges for cars and yet doesn't have any trains to run.

Of course, if they had started with a ten mile section of track in some place easy to drop in tracks then everyone'd make fun of it for only having two stations ten miles apart or something.