Posted on 08/20/2010 7:42:46 AM PDT by Willie Green
I know several of the people in this article and they fall into two categories- pie in the sky utopian libs and people who own property around the old depot in Longview.
Most of the town is scratching our head. We are fixing up the old depot as a historical site but the calls some are making for ‘high speed’ rail connections to Dallas or Shreveport is just silly. We already have rail to those cities and it is almost as fast to just drive there.
If it’s high speed rail, it won’t be stopping in every little town along the way. The people traveling between Houston to Dallas will just continue flying Southwest, if the “high speed” trains make stops at all the towns with a traffic light in between.
Officials disconnected from The People who don’t see the need for gov’t “investment” in systems The People don’t want.
Its completely silly. From Longview, it takes 1.5 hours to drive to Dallas if the traffic is bad and there is construction. I just looked up Amtrak’s schedule and going by rail takes 3 hours not counting the wait at the station. Then, when you get to Dallas, unless you want to do something around the station, you’ll need a taxi or rental car.
Willie Green posts all these stupid pro-rail articles. Fast rail for people is a waste.
A side note, something interesting is that the former district attorney, a friend of mine, calls Texas Eagle the crime express because it is one of the main ways of moving money south and drugs north.
These officials need to be informed of their imminent removal.
Monday nights on RFD-TV between 6:00 and 7:00 ET must be like porn to you Willie... :)
http://rfdtvweb.ironinnovation.com/schedule.asp
This is one of those “this will be great because someone else will pay for it” situations.
I have always thought that fast rail track should be built in the med. of the intersates, already own the property, put it sown and let er go.
Close the northern and western border!
Its completely silly. From Longview, it takes 1.5 hours to drive to Dallas if the traffic is bad and there is construction
Mapquest says that it takes 2hrs and 6 minutes to travel the 128 mile difference.
To do it in 1.5 hrs as you suggest, you'd have to be averaging over 85 mph.
However, I agree that Amtrak's schedule for this segment is slow in this day in age.
Fortunately, it can be dramatically improved simply by eliminating the bottlenecks and scheduling conflicts with the freight traffic along that route.
In fact, since the Texas rail rights-of-way aren't as hemmed in as they are along the Eastern Seaboard, I bet the existing freight right-of-way can be inexpensively widened to accommodate separate passenger traffic. Amtrak's Acela technology is capable of speeds up to 150 mph on suitable track, without the need for the more expensive Japanese Bullet train technology.
So the current Amtrak travel time can readily be cut in half, if Texans so choose.
High Speed Trains And Stupid Solutions
So what kind of opium pipe has Bill Lawrence been smoking???
And why didn't you answer me the first time I asked you this question?
Some of these sillies are likely bureaucRATS and are harder to dislodge than a bunch of beavers in your boathouse.
Ohh goody it’s time for the weekly “Willie Green” Rail Fairy Tale.
you’d have to be averaging over 85 mph
Guess you ain’t been on I-20 lately, heck the 18 wheelers are runjing 80.
Still when you get to the Dallas train station, I don’t think there are any car rentals and you need to be packing in that part of town, which might be hard to do after riding the Gubmint Train.
Secondly, a fast rail between Little Rock and Dallas wouldn’t be so fast having to detour south to LGV.
Athens to Kaufman? {-;
85 is pretty normal on I20, but you can also take Hwy 80 an knock off 30 miles off that distance (and fewer cops, even in the small towns except Gladewater which is a speed trap).. I make the trip twice a week to my Lewisville office, I have the schedule down to the minute (2 hours, 15 minutes from my house to my Lewisville office (1.5 hours to loop 360, another 45 minutes to the Lewisville office- all if the road is clear.)
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