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.
Better than just playing cars & trucks with it like we do now.
How many miles is it from Rutland to NYC and how long did it take.
Never, I don’t live there and the tracks aren’t coming to me. Plus high speed rail would be a high value target for terrorists and access to the track would be nearly impossible to secure.
For what it's worth, I've got a 1952 Official Railway Guide...and I checked.
There were two services: One left Rutland at 12:55 PM, arriving at Grand Central at 7:35 PM -- providing thru coach service. The other left Rutland at 11:40 PM, arriving at Grand Central at 6:40 AM (through sleeper).
The railway mileage is listed at 233.
In other words, about seven hours...an average of 33 mph. And this was in railroading's hey-day...
So I am guessing it was not a daily commute. LOL!
You're in luck, the stockyards have been closed.
The gov't could have probably flown you there in a private plane for less.
Only if it was significantly cheaper than air. High-Speed Rail, Atlanta-Chicag, will still require 7 hours on the train.......
“High-Speed” is a relative term, and “High-Speed Rail” is quite SLOW compared to air.
Osaka-Tokyo makes some sense because the distance is very short. The further the distance, the less sense rail makes, unless you’ve got time to kill, which few people have.
I had to allow about an hour and a half to drive to Rutland, and about 5-6 hours to Penn Station, depending on how late it was. Down on Monday and back on Thursday.
The train wasn’t always that empty. Often crowded as far as Albany, and sometimes quite a few all the way to Vermont in Ski season. And you had to reserve a seat for the week of Thanksgiving several months ahead.
Also, the tracks past Saratoga were basically owned and maintained by the freight trains, although most likely Amtrak contributed to fixing the rails and ties.
I can't imagine what a long ride on a Greyhound today is like.
OK, so I’d have to drive 2 hours to get to Atlanta so that I could ride a train to Nashville. Then rent a car in Nashville so that I could get around town.
No thanks.
These statist are certainly persistent - they HATE that people have the freedom of movement represented by the automobile.
If it was a sound idea, Norfolk & Southern and CSX would be running competitive passenger service to those cities already.
Swing low, sweet chariot...coming for to carry me home. Swing low...
Not bad at all at the time...which was before Interstates. How long to drive the same distance over two lane country roads, through two bit towns and stuck behind haywagons?
Lonely days are gone, I'm a'goin' home;
'Cause my baby just wrote me a letter.
With a squirrel cage cooler in the driver's side window...
I have never been to Vermont, one of the few states I have not visited (Vermont, NH, Maine, Wisconsin and Minnesota). I hear it is beautiful.
Yes, Vermont is really beautiful. As is the coast of Maine, where we spend our summers.
I don’t think it would be worth the duplicated eminent domain issues (this thing has to occupy strips of land somewhere, and probably could not share rails with existing freight or Amtrak lines).
It would be better to get the clumsy bureaucratic hassles out of air travel.
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