Posted on 08/11/2010 10:52:32 AM PDT by Willie Green
Would you like to board a high-speed train in Atlanta and travel north to Nashville? Or even farther north to Chicago? Or how about Atlanta to Florida by high-speed rail?
Such travel may be available in the future, although we have not heard of any timetable.
What we have heard this week is that Georgia and Tennessee are applying for a $34 million federal grant to continue the development of high-speed rail service from Atlanta to Nashville. The Georgia DOT said the money would help speed development of the train system. The money would come from the Federal Railroad Administration under the U.S. High Speed Intercity Passenger Rail program created by Congress last year.
Georgia and Tennessee already received $14 million last year to develop plans for the Atlanta to Chattanooga leg of the high speed rail service.
While the push now is on for service from Atlanta to Chattanooga and Nashville, eventually the service could stretch on to Louisville, Ky., and Chicago to the north and southward through Florida.
One day, high speed rail service will likely connect many major U.S. cities. Much like the interstate highway system was started back in the 1950s during the Eisenhower Administration, President Obama and future presidents are likely to see high speed rail service as a major component of travel alternatives throughout the country.
Japan has had the high speed bullet trains for decades. Certainly, this mode of transportation should be added to the travel mix in our country as we look for ways to reduce the number of passenger cars and trucks on our highways.
Give me a ticket for an aero-plane; ain’t got time to take a fast train...
Support Union employment!
There you go, bring back the freight trains. I’m all for that. Now that’s a more useful function of rail technology. Put the freight back on the rails and keep the passengers on the interstates!
**IF** this was available, who is the target customer? A business traveler doesn’t have the time to take ALL DAY to get to Chicago from Atlanta (pick your cities). IS this just a high speed, overly costly MARTA?
Have you considered High Speed Canals?
I don't know, but I'll bet that I'm going to pay for the train in tax dollars anyway.
It’s about 125 +/- miles from the ATL airport to the Chattanooga airport. So we’re talking ~90 minutes door to door plus terminal transit/transfer and waiting time.
Why do I want to land in Chattanooga and train-it to ATL? (or vice versa)
Why is it better than just landing in ATL?
What’s your angle in all of this socialist high speed train business? Are you heavily invested in train mfg stocks? The T. Boone Pickens of the train world? Or
do you just like trains? There’s got to be some reason you continue to push for this day in and day out. Sorry if I missed you explain this already... too many high speed rail threads around here lately for me to read them all. I’m not trying to be mean....you’re certainly entitled to lobby for whatever you want.
The congressman from Rutland must have taken a very special interest in Amtrak’s budget every year.
I have to admit that if I woke up in Atlanta, and a high speed train was the nearest and fastest way out of Atlanta, then yeah, I’d take it.
But not to Chicago or Nashville.
“Would you like to board a high-speed train in Atlanta and travel north to Nashville? Or even farther north to Chicago? Or how about Atlanta to Florida by high-speed rail?”
Why would I want to do that? I live in Houston, TX. The cab fare to the depot would be incredible.
If folks from the Volunteer State would like to do that, more power to ‘em. But if that’s their heart’s desire, I certainly hope that they do not expect me to pay for it.
What’s your angle in all of this socialist high speed train business? Are you heavily invested in train mfg stocks?
I first got POed at the OPECkers back in the early '70s when they jacked the price from 28¢ per gallon to over 65¢ per gallon and we had odd/even day gas rationing and crap like that.
Now I'm POed because the Global Oil Parasites have been lying to me for over 35 years, Those cockroaches have no intention whatsoever of reducing our addiction to overpriced oil. Their primary objective in life is to bleed our wallets dry at the pump.
By car...
Atlanta to Nashville : 4.25 hours
Atlanta to Chicago : 11.75 hours
Atlanta to Florida : now which part of that 800-mile long state do you have in mind? To Miami, 11 hours
Now I’ll raise the question again you so like to dodge:
How does time and cost of a whole new train infrastructure compare to existing car or plane options? Esp. when considering the always-ignored time and cost of traveling to and from the stations, waiting around there, limited baggage, and probable car rental.
You’re talking confiscating billions from the population to serve the few who are near enough the station, and have a destination near enough the other station, and are otherwise unwilling or unable to use existing cheap infrastructure to get there faster with less hassle.
And no, not many want to go from Atlanta to Nashville. There just ain’t that much to see (been there, done that).
I saw the comparable “fast ferry” from Toronto to Rochester fail miserably despite the huge sums spent thereon. A “fast train” from Atlanta to Nashville won’t do any better.
Fair enough I guess. Thanks for the reply.
So...the solution is to confiscate billions from a population most of which won’t use it? Ya know, I kinda need that money to pay for travel to places I AM going to which trains don’t.
Have you considered High Speed Canals?
Shhhhhh! I keep expecting this crowd to float some multi-billion dollar proposal to rebuild the Erie Canal
Sure I’d ride provided the cost, time, and amenities worked out favorably.
I suspect, though, that if there were such a great deal of money to be made that some entrepreneur would be doing this on his/her own.
Hey, if your issue is hating over reliance on oil, how about you spend some of those confiscated billions on buying me a gutsy new Macintosh so I can telecommute instead of drive to work daily, and pay to move my family to the NC OBX region so I have more incentive to not drive anywhere.
Sounds like a sensible compromise to me: use taxpayer money (which you would have confiscated at gunpoint for your high speed train debacle anyway) to help me ACTUALLY reduce my oil dependency SUBSTANTIALLY (most people burn far more gas going to work than they’ll ever use for long distance travel), and move me to where I’d travel to anyway (considering there will never be a train there).
Works for you? Works for me. Just have Uncle Sam send me a check for $10,000 and we’ll call it even.
"What’s your angle in all of this socialist high speed train business? Are you heavily invested in train mfg stocks?"
Willie's reply? Again he dodges BOTH of your questions with an oil rant. Read the following Willie FR green-train thread:
Senate committee allocates $150 million for Houston METRO light-rail projects
Read in Willie's first post after the article the following:
Ouote:"METRO (The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas) also wants to highlight the hard work and strong support from U.S. Representatives Gene Green, Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green in helping to secure $152 million in the House version of the FY 2011 Appropriations bill approved earlier this week."
Hmmmmmmm........Gene Green.....Al Green......Willie Green...all Texans.....all HEAVILY pushin' trains....tryin' to convince others to "see the error of their oil ways" and get you to "redistribute" some of your hard earned tax money in to areas where social justice has yet to achieve it's progressively perceived monetary zenith.......
Don't worry lwd. The "Willie doesn't ever answer my REAL questions to him" line is as long as the one you would be waiting in for one of Willie's beloved trains to arrive.
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