High-Speed Rail:What About Now?

High-speed rails and magnetic-levitation routes are grand ideas to contemplate for the future [“Time to Knock Heads and Board the Train,” James Flanigan, Feb. 17]. But right now parts of the city are choking, if not to death then close to coma. At least twice a day gridlock strikes major surface routes: Highland-Franklin-La Brea, Barham-Cahuenga, Coldwater-Ventura, to name just a few. To drive from Los Feliz to Beverly Hills or Century City takes nerves of steel and the patience of Job. Freeways are clogged most of the day. And it’s all going to get worse. Can anything be done?

IRWIN ROSTEN

Los Angeles

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I do not believe high-speed trains will ever be viable in California, as the population density is just not great enough and a car is still so much more convenient.

The Japanese studied the issue several years ago, wanting to export their bullet trains. Their research came to the conclusion that the U.S. has the best transit system in the world--the airplane and rental cars. All trains will do is get people out of planes, so why fix something that’s not broken?

JOHN RETTIE

Santa Barbara

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I am a member of the Rail Passenger Assn. of California, and you might expect me to be on the top of the list of supporters for all these projects, but experience and former residency in Los Angeles and San Diego tell me to be very cautious. The operative words in each project are “revenue bonds can be issued.” Those bonds require votes of the people of California, and I have serious doubts those ballot issues will get anywhere considering the huge amounts of money involved. The California High Speed Rail Authority is not happy about the competing plan by the Southern California Assn. of Governments either.

I just wish SCAG had not jumped on the bandwagon for magnetic levitation as its choice of technology. It isn’t a proven technology. It is not in revenue-generating service anywhere yet, but it has some powerful lobbyists in California, particularly representing Transrapid of Germany. Is it really necessary to go 300 mph between LAX and downtown L.A.? Those trains would not even be at speed before they would have to slow down for the next stop. To me, it is just as impractical as the bullet-train idea--rejected in the early 1980s--to go down the coast to San Diego.

RUSS JACKSON

Vacaville, Calif.