China built this. But could America? I know we can build this, but with all the regulations, could we build this?

pic.twitter.com/W21WWuNFVv

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 18, 2026

the biggest grift in american history...other than the green new deal

NIMBYism / special interest are turning us into euros who cant build stuff

Maybe if we use four different CE&I consultants and an Asian contractor. If you were to judge what we excel at building at just by looking around your area, you'd probably think we are only good at building tilt-panel commercial boxes and residential high-rises.

Quote:

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China is the land of shortcuts and facades. I bet the construction is super shoddy. The roof will probably cave in when it rains.

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Wasn't it a Texas company that built Allen's stadium that had to be repaired everywhere?

DrEvazanPhD said:

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Slavery gets **** done, apparently

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This is the answer.

Massive pool of poorly paid (if paid at all) labor.

But I am still figuring out why you need to tear down mountains to build train stations and housing.

Is there a shortage of places for people to live? Is this more rural relocation to urban centers to retrain the peasant rice and soy farmers to make EVs for America?

US-based farm owned by China then sell / sail soybean to China so China farmer can move city building cheap car to sell to US guys who sold farm, move to city buy China EV to drive job analyzing soybean futures.

All seem like paper tiger.

rocky the dog said:

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Meanwhile, in California...

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Easy Rocky, some here may have been on a train like that in 1970 in San Antonio that was held up and robbed.

I still dont think folks like BigRob can talk about it without getting emotional.

TexAgs91 said:

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China built this. But could America? I know we can build this, but with all the regulations, could we build this?

pic.twitter.com/W21WWuNFVv

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 18, 2026

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Truly amazing how monolithic the Communist Chinese Government can be in getting a major project done. All the expense of freedom, privacy, and personal sanctity.

And culling the costs associated with the elderly population by releasing a virus.

There is a reason why every construction accident training video is in China. When you have no concern for human life during construction, or what happens after they "complete" construction, things tend to move faster. There is also a reason why Chinese firms and materials are not allowed on many projects in the States.

aggiehawg said:

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May be a dumb question here but why would we want to build something like that?

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I mean Hearne was once the crossroads (rails?) of Texas so it's a prime candidate for this.

Lots of rail already serving Hearne and its central location is ideal.

TacosaurusRex said:

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There is a reason why every construction accident training video is in China. When you have no concern for human life during construction, or what happens after they "complete" construction, things tend to move faster. There is also a reason why Chinese firms and materials are not allowed on many projects in the States.

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There are about a billion Chinese people. Life doesn't mean as much over there.

We could. But why would we? Chinese car ownership rate is like 17%. They get around by rail. US car ownership rate is well over 90%. We get around by personal vehicle.

I certainly wish we could have both systems in place but I think autonomous driving is going to revolutionize how we get around by personal vehicle/hired vehicle/busses before we get around to building thousands of miles of passenger rail.

I take the Von Lane busses between Texas cities on occasion and it is very convenient. No need for rail lines when we could ramp up nicer busses and convenient routes on existing interstate highway infrastructure.

BusterAg said:

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Can someone specify what we are talking about since I don't click twitter?

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It's literally not possible to click twitter

aggiehawg said:

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May be a dumb question here but why would we want to build something like that?

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Not "dumb" at all!

Its the question every person should immediately ask!

Considering our government can't figure out a reflecting pool at this point, I'd say no.

Im Gipper said:

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aggiehawg said:

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May be a dumb question here but why would we want to build something like that?

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Not "dumb" at all!

Its the question every person should immediately ask!

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I just don't see any need for a passenger rail service on that scale. AmTrak has been a disaster, proving the demand and need for such rail services doesn't exist in the US.

Trump is fixing it.

txaggie_08 said:

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Is that entire video AI? At one point around the 2:05 mark a guy sinks into the water and disappears.

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One of the perks of working there. You get to take a swim whenever the urge arises.

NextGen videos do have elements of AI, but the projects are real, and the timeline given for this is correct: 38 months.

txaggie_08 said:

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Is that entire video AI? At one point around the 2:05 mark a guy sinks into the water and disappears.

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Is any of this even real? Not watching a 5 min AI video

AggieKatie2 said:

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Not saying China didnt build this, but such a weird AI video.

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Yup and ****ty AI at that

TxAg82 said:

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We could. But why would we? Chinese car ownership rate is like 17%. They get around by rail. US car ownership rate is well over 90%. We get around by personal vehicle.

I certainly wish we could have both systems in place but I think autonomous driving is going to revolutionize how we get around by personal vehicle/hired vehicle/busses before we get around to building thousands of miles of passenger rail.

I take the Von Lane busses between Texas cities on occasion and it is very convenient. No need for rail lines when we could ramp up nicer busses and convenient routes on existing interstate highway infrastructure.

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Mostly I agree. I do think car ownership will drop with "FSD" and cyber taxi etc. stuff. Elon predicts 90% of miles traveled will be AI-navigation within 10 years.

Elon Musk in new interview: "10 years from now, probably 90% of all distance driven will be driven by the AI in a self-driving car. It will be quite a niche thing in 10 years to actually be driving your own car."

AI already drives for 90%+ of the miles I travel. https://t.co/6uwiDKS9of pic.twitter.com/PNktWdbPPO

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) May 18, 2026

Maybe he is way off but it is going to increase and young adults are buying fewer cars than their parents etc. China has a line where 80% of their massive population lives in the eastern 20% of the country, and Europe has something relatively similar for a city-rail network to make sense. We just don't.

There's nothing technically challenging about such a rail station, but I don't see the US converting our freight rail lines to high speed rail for pax (something that would require massive federal and state legislation, oh btw) anytime soon for the same reasons it's not happened the past 100+ years. Shifts in air, road, and even space travel with remote-work/AI in a future industrial landscape won't drive such a dramatic shift.

In 3 years? Not a chance in hell. Took 12 years to do the Katy Freeway expansion.