Posted on 02/02/2023 9:41:58 PM PST by SeekAndFind
No, JR’s HSR does not make money. The numbers are skewed by excluding the costs of infrastructure.
And California has always taken the most absurd route to HSR planning anyhow, which results in it allegedly costing ten times per mile more than what they spend on it elsewhere in the world.
The writer is quite the optimist, worrying about the profitability of a railroad that may never be built.
I’m all for high-speed rail
Just let private investors and companies run it.
Then we’ll know exactly how good an idea it really is.
The U.S. is too spread out so it’s not really doable.
Just in general...even in Europe...I don’t think any of the high-speed rail projects have a real pay-back situation. It’s just infrastructure money from each gov’t that makes these happen in the end.
And I’ll just say...having ridden a couple of times on German high-speed rail...it’s an uneasy feeling when you get above 200 kilometers per hour.
One other HUGE DIFFERENCE - the nicest places to visit, live, and work in Japan are the central areas of the big cities (assuming one doesn’t need a 20 Acre FreeRepublic Ranch), while the inner cities in the US make Haiti look like a paradise. I suspect that 90% of airport customers have nothing to do with our central cities and would prefer NOT to be dumped there.
(assuming one doesn’t need a 20 Acre FreeRepublic Ranch)
We grew up calling them “hobby farms”.
Daniel Boone’s idea of dense housing. Nice places to raise a family.
This is a good point you’ve made.
They seem to have overlooked the biggest difference between California and Japan. In japan you’re not worried that some indigent crazy living in a corner of the station’s going to walk over and push your wife and child onto the tracks.
I’m taking a wild guess that the authors first name “Thmoas Buckley” is misspelled, unless that’s a Japanese interpretation.
Democrats are idiots and never factor in culture.
Japanese are pretty homogeneous and comfortable
in small controlled confined areas.
I’m a white guy and I like my freedom and my space.
screw your trains. I don’t even like airplanes and I was a Boeing Engineer for over twenty years.
Personal transportation made a lot of people very rich.
Y’all figure it out.
Thanks.
Japanese public transportation is safe. I mean safe from being accosted by ferals.
“the nicest places to visit, live, and work in Japan are the central areas of the big cities, while the inner cities in the US make Haiti look like a paradise”
How do the Japanese keep their cities so nice?
Making our big cities “nice” makes more sense than moving people from distant homes into and out of the cities each day.
How are they going to collect the fares? If they arrest people who refuse to pay, it will be racist.
“No, JR’s HSR does not make money. The numbers are skewed by excluding the costs of infrastructure.”
And corruption costs. Japanese wouldn’t tolerate it.
California’s high speed rail to nowhere ?
Not familiar with the Japan system but have spent a lot of time in Taiwan. The underground train system in Taipei was built in 3 yrs on a 4 yr project and under budget. Went through a major earthquake with only a few ceiling tiles knocked loose. Super clean, no one litters in Taiwan. There is a large fine if caught with chewing gum in there.
All across the country the trains are on time to the minute. People are friendly and kind, happy to help you.
The suburbs of Los Angeles and San Francisco spread out for many miles.
There might be five trips involved:
1. walk to catch a bus/subway
2. bus/subway to departure RR station
3. the high-speed train trip (via the central cities)
4. bus/subway from destination RR station
5. walk to destination after getting off bus/subway
If you drive, you have ready transportation at your destination. And your car better be ‘green’ by 2050.
There is corruption in Japan, probably around the level of the US.
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