> What I find mystifying is that given the geography and population
> density of CA coastal area, an Acela-like train service would be
> quite feasible there and cut the travel time to about 4.5 - 5
> hours (estimate based on current travel time between DC and NYC)
> plus serve localities in between like Salinas, San Louis Obispo,
> or Bakersfield. The fact that such a service does not exist can
> only be explained by only one think - the lack of political will
> of people who call themselves government.
You need to (again) take a look at a good map. There's no way to do it with the geography of California. The geography is just too difficult to overcome with Acela-like technologies. Both San Francisco and Los Angeles are ringed with very tall mountains.
/jordan