Comment Re:As a rail fan (Score 1) 208
Interesting, thanks. In Japan they had some legal issues with the new maglev line. First there was a big fight over the route it would take, because several smaller towns wanted stops that would massively boost their economies. Even without a stop, the route dictated where the construction would be, sure to be a benefit to local businesses.
They also had some issues with potential noise, which is partly why most of it is in tunnels.
Not all of it is resolved, but construction has already started anyway.
Seems like some of the NIMBY issues could be resolved with some incentives. Place solar along the line, maybe vertically oriented to help block noise, and give people living nearby some credits from the energy produced.
For the underground, China built over 10,000km of metro lines using tunnel boring machines. They built them faster than anyone else too, having perfected some new techniques to make it cheaper and quicker. It's possible, but for some reason not in the US or UK... Musk tried, but the Boring Company ended up just using conventional methods.