Everyone here is very excited about the prospect of High Speed Rail! After nearly 50 years of talking about it and 31 years after one of my all time favorite shows, "SUPERTRAIN", (it even had a pool!)...
... it looks like California is finally getting serious about a bullet train. It would link Sacramento and the Bay Area with L.A. and San Diego, and if it moves forward the very first segment that gets built will run right through little ole' Bako.
People here seem to think the reason they would be first is because they're somehow special. I hate to break it to them, but the reason they'd be up first is because they're easy - clearing a right of way through miles of dead farmland and tapped out oil fields is going to be a snap compared with threading it through dense, urban, civilized territory. Plus, there's little danger of opposition for disturbing anything scenic, cultural or historically important because they have none of those thing here. And even if they did, I don't think it would be a problem - The City of Bako already helpfully (and a little too eagerly, if you ask me) offered to bulldoze Bakersfield High School to make way for the train. The school's been around since 1893 and was one of the few downtown buildings to survive the '52 earthquake, but hey, can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.
There are other advantages too, I'm sure. There's probably a certain level of danger to it all, and inevitably some accidents and kinks to work out. Best to do it somewhere where the population is expendable.
It's probably still years away, if it happens at all. The way things are going in this state, that's a big "if". But when it's all said and done you'll be able to go from Bakersfield to Fresno in only 30 minutes!
Can't wait!
