Bullet train redux on green energy

Re: “High-speed rail builder warns of 2-year delay,” March 29

In spite of its high priority as the largest infrastructure project in the U.S., the bullet train is reporting additional delays and cost increases. Perhaps the biggest reason for delays and cost increases is land acquisition. Needed parcels along the route are not available, seven years after construction contracts were issued.

Similar failures could occur with the state’s efforts to reach net zero, no net greenhouse gas emissions, by 2050. A lot of land is required for transmission lines, as well as for solar and wind farms and other environmentally friendly purposes. If the state and private developers have to acquire land on a parcel-by-parcel basis, dealing with environmental and legal issues and price negotiations, then the state’s clean energy goals will not be achieved. William Fletcher

Craig Smith Newport Beach The writers are the coauthors of “Reaching Net Zero: What It Takes to Solve the Global Climate Crisis.”

California’s rail authority has just admitted that the short train route between Merced and Bakersfield will cost $22 billion.

This is so absurd it raises this question: Wouldn’t it be wiser to kill the project, lease a few helicopters and shuttle passengers needing to make that trip each day?

$22 billion would pay for quite a few helicopter flights!

James Regan Carlsbad

More delays and missed deadlines. More money pouring down an abyss of mismanagement. Yet more reasons to finally put an end to California’s own version of the “Bridge to Nowhere.”

Who hasn’t often dreamt of the day when they could ride from Bakersfield to Merced at 200 miles per hour?

I personally think that the best use of high-speed rail would be from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, with a stop in Riverside. The route would be packed and would pay itself off in only a matter of years. Kent Grigsby

Riverside