Posted on 04/23/2010 11:21:29 AM PDT by Willie Green
Like the gleam on the tracks from an oncoming locomotive, high-speed rail transportation in the United States may be finally coming into sight. Before the end of the decade, rail backers promise, Americans will be traveling on bullet trains, the way Europeans and Asians have been doing for half a century. At speeds of up to 220 mph, high-speed rail will make it possible to travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than three hours, or half the time it takes to drive. Tampa to Orlando will take less than an hour, or 35 percent faster than by car. You'll be able to get from Chicago to St. Louis in less time than it takes to fly -- after you factor in the hours spent getting to and from distant airports and the hassle of getting through security 90 minutes before your flight.
The myriad benefits of high-speed rail have long been apparent to anyone who has ridden Japan's Shinkansen trains or France's TGV. These so-called bullet trains are faster than driving, more comfortable and convenient for short distances than flying and, because they run on electricity, don't rely on foreign oil imports. Trains arrive in downtown city centers and are usually linked to public transit.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Yep. And a train needs a station and a roundhouse to boot as well as those tracks that only go between point A and B.
Cool!!!!
If we're gonna invest our money in infrastructure, it's nice to know that we'll be getting something that's built to last that long.!!!
Our great great great great great great great grandchildren will be glad we did!!!
That's rich, Willie, unless you've figured out how a train can take an asphalt road.
If they’d put in a higher speed freeway system, that could be worked in the favor of the drivers.
But some see it as a good thing to get people out of their cars and into hybrid golfcarts. It’s the weening process.
Trains traveling at 200 mph are still a long way down the track in such places as Detroit, Seattle and Charlotte.
From crazy to crazier in nothing flat.
Google 'Madrid 3/11' and get back to me about how al Qaeda can effectively wreak complete political havoc by targeting trains.
Whereas no one has ever fired a ground-to-air missile at a commercial airliner, right?
Here's another argument in favor of trains:
How many hostage crises, hijackings, or massive acts of sabotage have been carried out against trains in the U.S. (or using trains as weapons against, e.g., buildings) over the last fifty years?
Now, how many have been conducted against airliners?
So, what evidence do you have that that is going to change?
Regards,
That's my favorite part of this.
The only HSR that actually makes any sense is BOS-WAS. The rest of it is sh*t - who wants to go to Tampa OR Orlando, anyway? And after the Canary Islands tsunami, there won't even BE a Florida.
So, for 220 mph you need a new, completely straight ROW that will rip the heart out of Harrison and Purchase, NY, Greenwich, New Caanan, and Darien, CT.
Unless all the stockbrokers and money fixers in NY are in prison by then, there is NO FUC*ING WAY that will ever happen. Not in a million years.
This whole thing is so stupid, it makes my head hurt.
High speed rail in an earthquake zone should be fun - kinda like an amusement park ride without the amusement.
Don’t forget the Tokyo subway attacks and the attacks in London a few years ago.
No kidding? Wow, now I'm even more in favor of building high-speed rails!
Rip away!
Regards,
The environmental impact study will take at least decade.
Willie, I love train travel as much as anyone, but it is laughable to think a high speed train between Tampa and Orlando, which is less than 60 miles apart, will be used at all. It is a straight drive on the Interstate as is, and NO ONE COMMUTES BETWEEN THE TWO ANYWAY AT THE PRESENT TIME.
We would be better off, if money is going to be spent, developing monorail links in urban/suburban areas where people actually commute to work where traffic is a problem.
For example, expand the Metrorail service in Miami, where there is HORRENDOUS traffic and no chance to expand the roads due to density issues. People commute to the city and go to the suburbs. It can take an hour to go 10 miles if you live southwest of Miami.
The intercity high speed travel just does not have the demand you think there is.
The building of the 2nd Avenue subway line in Manhattan is justifiable by demand, the Acela to D.C. is limited to the speed the train can go around curves, which is well below it’s top ability.
I could see Las Vegas as a hub to California cities and Denver/Phoenix. But on the east coast, NO ROUTE IS EFFECTIVE ON A COST BASIS.
In order for this to work, business travelers need to use it instead of flight. In order to be of use to the business traveler, multiple trains would be needed on a route, and that could be prohibitively expensive to maintain and man the crew.
Stick to local train expansion and put the intercity plans on ice, FOREVER.
Over the last 50 years? Probably very few. But then plane hijackings were non-existent altogether 50 years ago.
We DID have Nazi saboteurs who blew up train tracks stateside in WWII.
And make the city lose out on parking fines? Never!
This is the current Amtrak route system. It is silly to think many business travelers would utilize this. Chicago to L.A. on high speed train instead of flight? NOT CONVENIENT ENOUGH!!
Nice qualifier - in the U.S.
Now try Madrid, Tokyo and the UK.
So trains can be a viable terror target - and especially when they are more widely used, as some are doing here.
And comparing the difficulty of sabotaging track with a couple of hand tools from Home Depot to the difficulty of acquiring a surface to air missile shows you are just being an obtuse idiot.
Take it back to Germany where maybe they'll fall for it.
Here’s a novel idea. If the people in Miami think they’d benefit from a monorail, let the people who benefit from it pay for it.
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