When approved by voters in 2008, California's proposed high-speed rail line was supposed to run the roughly 400-mile (650km) distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco by 2020 at a cost of $33 billion.Already one year late, officials now say the bullet train will not be finished until the mid-2030s. Meanwhile, the cost has ballooned to around $100 billion.Which raises a question: could that money - and time - have been better spent?In earlier decades, there wasn't a workable and environmentally friendly alternative to high-speed rail. But that may no longer hold true: rapid improvements in battery technology could make electric aircraft a true challenger.Establishing a high-speed rail line requires governments to move mountains of earth and treasure -as well as private homes that stand in the path of their grand plans. But a small regional airline in Vancouver, Canada is working to prove how quickly electric aircraft can be introduced on short-haul routes.Harbour Air aims to become the first airline to carry paying passengers on an electric aircraft, transporting up to four people on routes of up to 30min on a modified De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver.
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