i always wondered why there were no train tracks laid along the main east/west interstates when they were made
Posted on 08/15/2010 5:34:39 AM PDT by Willie Green
Conventional wisdom may say otherwise, but the recession is a good time to start spending the billions of dollars it will take to make high-speed rail travel a reality in this country. The benefits of that economic stimulus could not be denied.
Don't we already have high-speed rail lines, you might ask. And the answer is no, not really, as staff writer Paul Nussbaum pointed out in a four-part series of articles that ran last week in The Inquirer.
While Amtrak's fastest train, the Acela Express, chugs along at about 70 miles per hour, Spain's AVE Train cruises at 186 m.p.h.
Think about it: Trains traveling that fast would slice in half the five hours it now takes the Acela to get to Boston from Philadelphia. A New York-to-Washington trek becomes a 90-minute jaunt. Visiting or working in one Northeast Corridor city while living in another one suddenly becomes a much easier feat to accomplish.
A growing movement to take America where Europe and Asia have been for years with high-speed rail now includes President Obama, who recently committed $8 billion in stimulus money to new rail projects, including $1.2 billion toward the cost of a Tampa-to-Orlando high-speed line that may become the nation's first.
But Obama is just sticking his toe in the water. To get fully immersed, a much bigger financial commitment has to be made. A national network of high-speed lines will cost up to a $1 trillion, spread out over several decades. But the investment would pay huge dividends, including tens of thousands of new construction and manufacturing jobs.
The investment needed would be comparable to the effort that began the interstate highway system. It will require careful analysis of where it would make sense to put high-speed lines.
That's actually a conversation that needs to be had about all rail travel in this country. Government subsidies for lightly used Amtrak routes aren't justified.
Transportation and other government officials at all levels, as well as consumers and other stakeholders, must be fully involved in these discussions. They can get a good head start by considering an excellent proposal for a Northeastern high-speed line developed by the University of Pennsylvania School of Design.
The PennDesign plan includes new tracks for two rail lines dedicated to high-speed trains traveling from Boston to Washington. High-speed stations would also be built in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Hartford, Conn., and Long Island, N.Y. The new tracks would free existing tracks for commuter and freight service.
The popularity of these high-speed lines could triple Amtrak ridership in the Northeast Corridor to 55 million annual riders by 2040. The amenities needed to serve riders at new stations will benefit the surrounding communities. Increased train travel will also reduce the need for new roads, and the environment will benefit from reduced carbon emissions from cars.
It makes sense to integrate a new high-speed rail system with commuter lines and air carriers to build a transportation network better than anything in Europe. The cost will be great, but so will the benefits. Obama should emulate Eisenhower on highways, and make a defining investment in the needed infrastructure.
I like the independence of driving my own car on my own time and dime, stopping wherever and whenever I please. Baggage in tow, body unscanned, toiletries over 2oz in abundance.
Such a rail system would necessarily become as much a hassle as the airlines. And not as fast.
Any article that starts by a recession is a good time to start spending billions of (taxpayer) dollars was written by a moron.
So I guess it makes sense to spend untold amounts of money so that unemployed citizens can get to the unemployment centers quicker throughout America. Then too, maybe we should spend the money building mosques in every historic site or symbolic place in America. For instance, Valley Forge, Yorktown, Philly city center and so forth. All praise the nobama!
Bicycles are the most fuel efficient method. It’s just that there is this thing in the world called the value of time. Now for socialist, unionists, hacks, losers, the unemployed, Willie Green, time isn’t valuable, but for the rest of us, and historically, time is money. Fed=Ex, McDonalds, broadband, microwaves ovens, and a million other products and services all show the quickest, fastest is preferred. This is why no one travels by foot, oxen, Castoga wagon, Clipper ships, canal barge anymore.
That’s why loser, hack, subsidized, union, government featherbedding and political hack stuffing money pits like even Amtrack’s Boston to Washington corridor not only still lose money, they would lose money if every seat of every trip was filled.
Willie, being a Democrat, naturally wants train avoiding, train non preferred free Americans to have money they worked for and earned, taken by tax force, guile and any other method, away from them, making them poorer, and transferred to his union, Democrat politician hiring, and hack contractor friends.
Attah boy Willie!
And how much in yearly federal subsidies is it going to cost to provide security along the entire length of this 186 MPH track?
Such a rail system would necessarily become as much a hassle as the airlines. And not as fast.
Ground transportation will never be faster than air travel in the long distance transcontinental market. But for shorter, regional trips of less than 600 miles, it can be much more efficient than short-hop air service. Especially if we eliminate the bottlenecks and delays due to freight traffic.
And how much in yearly federal subsidies is it going to cost to provide security along the entire length of this 186 MPH track?
The necessity for subsidies diminish as passenger rail infrastructure is upgraded to provide competitive performance and ridership increases past the break-even point.
I've pretty much concluded there is no need for high speed rail based on who needs it and why?
Major cities are connected to .... major cities.
It ain't like New Yawkers want to take a break and visit Buffalo, is it?
Atlanta and DC?
It's all smoke and mirrors (again) waiting for the failed gorebull warming hoax to re-appear after enough time (remember the '70's ?) passes and it can be resurrected.
Come quickly Lord Jesus.
You are absolutely correct. I see it every morning when I commute into Penn Station. People waiting on ridiculously long check-in lines to ride Amtrak into Canada.
And where in the world does this occur? No where. Not in England, Japan, Germany, France are passenger trains net cash producing, tax paying entities. Not even in Japan where the government crushes car ownership.
( Actually, I have to point out that China seems, although unclearly, to allow train lines to fail. So, it seems, a bit, that China is more free enterprise, at least in passenger trains, then the rest of the now socialists world. )
LOL. The commute from home to the train station = 1/2 to 1 hour each way.
The commute from the train station to work = 1/4 to 1/2 hour each way.
So the commute outside of the train would be (1 to 2) + (1/2 to 1) = 1.5 to 3 hours each day,
plus the 90 minutes on the train.
This is 3 to 4.5 hours a day commuting.
Not gonna work.
Cheers!
Very funny.
Right now, not thirty years in the future, I-95 between Boston and Northern Virgina does 55 million riders in.....
........A week.
So, we are to spend money away from something that presently is doing 56 times( 5,600 percent more) times more riders for something that ....might...maybe...in thirty years or forty years..or fifty years of more taxes, pensions, hacks...maybe do, maybe what is now done in a week.
Yeah. Great.
Major cities are connected to .... major cities.
It ain't like New Yawkers want to take a break and visit Buffalo, is it?
It's pretty obvious that some do.
Although airlines provide that service, Amtrak can perform it even more efficiently, and provide passenger with a choice of many other communities along the way.
Come quickly Lord Jesus.
I really wish that you market-worshipping libertarian atheists would refrain from using our Lord's name in such expletives. Especially on Sunday mornings. It is disrespectful.
i always wondered why there were no train tracks laid along the main east/west interstates when they were made
Fine. Build it with your money, not mine.
Round trip MegaBus same trip = $48.00
One hour longer trip on the bus... and interesting "companions" for entertainment!
When you take your own vehicle you can take as many other people with you as you can seat, at no extra charge. Or you can make your passengers pay for your gas. Everyone on a train has to have their own ticket, it gets expensive.
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