How about lifetime passes to Disneyland and on-call SF-LA helicopter service for anybody over 25, it's probably cheaper.
Posted on 06/12/2010 5:38:41 AM PDT by Willie Green
The governor proposes that a train be set up by November, before he leaves office, to give commuters a taste of European-style fast rail travel. Skeptics say extensive upgrades must first be made.
It could be years before sections of the planned California high-speed rail project can be completed. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't want to wait that long to give the state a taste of the European-style system.
The governor has proposed to the federal government that a demonstration project be set up on the rail link between San Diego and Los Angeles, one of the busiest commuter corridors in the nation. He would like it in place by November, two months before he leaves office.
The intercity line would go much slower than the proposed 220 mph bullet train. However, transportation officials say it would probably go a bit faster than conventional trains and make the trip between San Diego and Los Angeles in 2 hours and 10 minutes — about 50 minutes faster than driving during peak travel times.
"Californians need to see and experience something that is 'high-speed-rail' sooner than 2020," Schwarzenegger wrote in his proposal, which was sent to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood earlier this month.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Yes.
Only now there will be blurred murals of the countryside pasted to the windows to give folks a "Feeling" of high speed rail travel.
Kinda like the cards on the bicycle wheels always made it "feel" as though the bike was going a lot faster than it was.
Probably not. But a "strong" Republican President acting in the interest of National Security could sign an executive order demanding immediate drilling in Alaska.
Maybe they should just put cards on the train wheels? LOL
Have you compared it to the wonderful Japanese highways???
Do you know anything about the economic structure of either?
I can answer "yes" to these.
Japan does have very nice highways; they spend a lot of money on making well-built highways — a necessity in a country with as many earthquakes as Japan does.
It also has an excellent high-speed rail system.
The roadways and their associated taxes do pay for themselves. In fact, the excess money generated from the roadways pays for other parts of the budget.
Railways are far more complex. In and of themselves, they don't pay for themselves, but they put infrastructure in for vast numbers of businesses that also pay taxes. I think that's the most compelling fiscal reason for having such a fine rail system as Japan does.
However, Japan is densely populated, so densely populated that having a car in Tokyo is a far more greater problem than it is in the vast majority of the U.S. I am not sure that without that tremendous density that even the infrastructure argument can be made.
Have you been on one?Yes, I've ridden on the Japanese Bullet Train.
Have you compared it to the wonderful Japanese highways???
Do you know anything about the economic structure of either?
Japanese passenger rail was privatised back in the early '90s.
Of course much of there success is due to government investment in state-of-the-art technology during the previous decades.
In contrast, Amtrak inherited antiquated crap cast aside by the freight railroads.
We still have more to upgrade before Amtrak can operate profitably like the Japanese.
Also the population of California is spread out more than in Germany...
I prefer Drilling than Choo Choo trains..
So what union will be running this black hole? SEUI? Will they let those who clean the cars retire after 25 years at 90% of their salary or will they have to wait until they are 65?
Where do you get $160, idiot (just kidding). Try $800, for my family (ok, maybe a bit less for the kids, so $560). That’s really where the trade is. When taking a family on a train (and then renting a car) can compete with driving, please wake me up.
So
You mean
Drive to station
Park car
walk thru huge parking lot in hot sun.
Pay $100++ each per person to go somewhere ...
Lug all the food, books, blankets, meds,
Board the crowded smell can’t sit together train
Reverse all this at the other end incl rent car
can’t change plans or go anywhere at other end as tied to train station and schedules .......
Total over $1,000 to go from LA to the SD zoo and back
or ya can go in the family car for $25 gasoline or less.
Sorry WIllie
Car = Freedom
Train = State Enforced Slavery
Thats why the Brits have ‘em (and hate em), the Germans have em the Rooskies have em .
That’s why Randy Newman wrote I Love LA (hint: wasn’t about riding around town in his clanking 19th century light rail car) !!!
“Car = Freedom
Train = State Enforced Slavery”
That is the bottom line. It amazes me that the left isn’t more into selling off our toll roads (and also freeways, for tolling). Doing so almost assures that the only people using them will be either the super rich, or people with a business need (we’re talking 30 cents per mile, easy, here).
I do understand Republicans, like Rick Perry and Mitch Daniels, doing it - as they TOO STUPID to figure out EXACTLY what you said. But for the Dems - it’s the surest way to lock down the highways and pretty much confine people to where they live - seems like a PERFECT plan for them.
Taking high-speed rail from LA to San Diego makes no sense,
Let’s say I want to take a weekend vacation — see the Zoo and Sea World. I travel to downtown LA, having to take public transportation, which believe me is no fun. I get on the train, another form of public transportation which has it’s own irritations, and arrive in downtown San Diego. All this will take about 2 1/2 to 3 hours, compared to the 2 1/2 to 3 hours it would take to just hop in the car and drive.
So now I’m in San Diego. With no car.
You want me to rent a car when I have a perfectly good car at home that could have made the trip? You want me travel to my hotel and the zoo and sea world and restaurants and the shoreline by public transportation?
Are you nuts?
If you had a job that required travel from downtown LA to downtown San Diego, it would make a convenient, but expensive, commute. But how many people do that?
My guess is — none.
high Speed rail might make sense for a weekend trip to Vegas, where a large percentage of places you want to go are reached by the monorail or by walking. Outside of that, I can see no use for it.
Progressives are always drooling over the "European Model" when they try to remake America by force.
Willie...there's lots of talk about modeling our health care after the Brittish system. That includes denial of treatment for "mature" patients in need of dialysis or insulin.
If we lose the struggle to prevent this "Brave New World" of yours, I hope you live long enough to realize your foolishness.
My rant #2:
All the numbers being offered up are false:
“2.1 hours to go from LA to SD is faster by 50 minutes than in a peak traffic car”...
What a hoot !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Does the train come to my front door or driveway to start?
Drop me off at the office building in San Diego where I need to go to?
Of course not.
Maybe Barack’s limo travels at 35/40 mph on the freeway but I don’t;
peak traffic only applies to the first few miles in rush hour ......
etc
etc
My numbers are more realistic: $1,000 for my whole family and 6 hours door to door.
Compared to $50 R/T for the whole family by car, with music, conversation, laughter and a cold drink and sandwiches!!! And safety. And privacy. And comfort. Ever lug the luggage for 6 thru a train station and station parking lot? I have.
Note: LA is 120 miles wide from top to bottom.
SD is 120 miles away, i.e. 2 hours.
Note: ever been to Union Station.?
Looks like skid room but without the BUMS i.e. dead empty.
Ever see Blade Runner?
Well the H Ford to head detective meeting scene was shot inside Union Station, inside, no other people there ...
they probably didn’t even need to close the thing off to get the right effect ha ha!
Train travel is for weirdos who are scared to drive or take a plane.
Can u say LA to SF by jet plane in 45 minutes for $25 ???
I used to do it ALL the time ...
till the scarey fairy Dimms took over and regulated it and scared it out of existence.
Or, you could live in Tokyo and have “PUSHERS” jamming the last 50 desperate travellers each morning and evening into EACH train car.The few left over that cannot fit in sometimes “pop” back out and die on the tracks; and a few are crushed to death each year if they fall down and cannot get up !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have you ever been packed into a train car designed for 50 but there are 250 in there? Well I have.
An extremely unpleasant and indeed quite horrific experience.
But the gov rats in Tokyo are happy -——— they all have black limos (and I do mean all of them), chauffeured driven cars with drivers wearing white gloves, engines idling for hours, and bowing and scraping and opening the rear doors for their pols when they finally get back in. While they wait, their hired peon removes every speck of dust from the car body with a tiny duster ......
Lemmmmmme see
Train travel or Limo with driver with white gloves ............ hmmmmmmm ....... wonder which is nicer ???
You take the train, pal. I’d rather drive, walk, crawl, or ride a bike than be packed in with Joe Six Pack, his evil smell, his goofball stare, his tatttoeed crew, and the train driver who texts while taking down $100,000 a year and then retires 97% of the time on disability !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Long Island Rail - but that’s another thread!!!)))
I hate trains. Could you guess?
How about lifetime passes to Disneyland and on-call SF-LA helicopter service for anybody over 25, it's probably cheaper.
The same fascist control freak who bankrupted this state just wants to sink us deeper in debt.
Goofball.
All this will take about 2 1/2 to 3 hours, compared to the 2 1/2 to 3 hours it would take to just hop in the car and drive.
That's 5~6 hours for the round trip... up to 10 if traffic is heavy and congested.
You just wasted most of the day traveling in your car.
Take the high-speed train. You'll arrive relaxed and refreshed and on time without getting tied up in traffic. And still have plenty of time available to do whatever you went there to do.
Well then, lets seize their land and vehicles. Then we put them in efficiency apartments co-located with government shops and rail stations.
Willie, being a benevolent dictator, will even give them free wifi (paid for with their tax dollars).
Progressives are always drooling over the "European Model" when they try to remake America by force.
And the neocon libertarians drool over the "Mexican Model", which makes Europe look very attractive.
Low-baller! Boon-doggler! Rosy scenario person! A little while ago I figured that just a one-way ticket would be well over $100, and probably closer to $200, and that's just to cover the bonds used to build the thing, not operating expenses.
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