Flying is the worst form of transportation imaginable, yet people are still opposed to HSR (terrorists, support)
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Between the airsickness, bad food (if it is even offered), cramped seats, poor customer service, endless delays and cancellations, having to remove your shoes at the security gate and who knows what other items of clothing, being felt up and degraded by a bunch of power-mad TSA agents, flying in the US has become a form of sadomasochism and torture.
But people are still largely opposed to high-speed rail? Go figure.
You left off the lack of manners by your fellow passengers, which is what you find on the train as well. Especially if it was crowded.
People are opposed to high speed rail in places where it won't work.
For example the high speed rail between Los Angeles and Las Vegas won't go into LA, but only as far as Victorville, 90 miles east of LA.
So someone who wants to go Las Vegas from LA would have to drive almost halfway to get on the train, at that point you might as well just drive or fly.
They wanted to run the HSR from Tampa to Orlando, the problem there is the lack of mass transit once you get to either destination. Thanks to poor planning and uncontrolled sprawl, what do you if you took the rail from Orlando to Tampa and need to get around Tampa? Rent a car? So why not just drive in the first place.
Between the airsickness, bad food (if it is even offered), cramped seats, poor customer service, endless delays and cancellations, having to remove your shoes at the security gate and who knows what other items of clothing, being felt up and degraded by a bunch of power-mad TSA agents, flying in the US has become a form of sadomasochism and torture.
But people are still largely opposed to high-speed rail? Go figure.
High Speed Rail? As if it is possible, at any price, apart from high-density corridors on the coasts? 80% of the geographic area of the country is spread out: by the time a train has to stop in Ogallala, North Platte, Kearney, Grand Island, Lincoln and Omaha just to get across Nebraska and serve the "major" population centers, guess what? It is no longer high speed. HSR for most of America is like the Tooth Fairy, or trying to get rich by panning for gold in your shower. It does not exist, it cannot exist, and it will not work.
Meanwhile, you can leave any of more than 100 airports in this country and arrive at any other within a matter of hours. Air travel is a miracle of convenience and safety. Food? Crimenently, I fly fairly frequently and am always pleased at the variety of offerings in the airports. I often eat during relatively short layovers...and the last thing I want is for the flight staff of an airline to be trying to provide me with food. As for the TSA, it is quite foolish to expect that it won't be involved in obnoxious ways with every popular form of mass transit--including rail.
To those posters who suggest that we could improve our overall financial position by wasting big gobs of money, give it up. We've been there, done that.
Between the airsickness, bad food (if it is even offered), cramped seats, poor customer service, endless delays and cancellations, having to remove your shoes at the security gate and who knows what other items of clothing, being felt up and degraded by a bunch of power-mad TSA agents, flying in the US has become a form of sadomasochism and torture.
But people are still largely opposed to high-speed rail? Go figure.
I love traveling by rail....definitely my favorite form of transportation. But sometimes time restraints are such that you have to suck it up and fly. Especially here in Florida. At least when I was living in the Northeast you could move around a little by rail (ie. Boston to NYC, DC).
No question, flying sucks.
Yea, i agree. Flying does suck anymore. I used to enjoy it at one time, but now i groan at the thought of setting foot in a damn airport.
This is true if you work for the TSA. If HSR ever caught on, you might be out of a job.
Another point in favor rail travel. Hijackers always like to target airplanes. I never heard of any train-jackings.
Yes, because TSA is the only aircraft related job there is. There is no need for pilots, flight attendants, detailers, aircraft mechanics, DOMs, dispatchers, air traffic controllers, engineers or even accountants or sales people. Nope, the TSA is the only thing keeping planes flying.
I'll still stick with planes, thank you very much. GA will always be around and so will commercial flight.
You left off the lack of manners by your fellow passengers, which is what you find on the train as well. Especially if it was crowded.
People are opposed to high speed rail in places where it won't work.
For example the high speed rail between Los Angeles and Las Vegas won't go into LA, but only as far as Victorville, 90 miles east of LA.
So someone who wants to go Las Vegas from LA would have to drive almost halfway to get on the train, at that point you might as well just drive or fly.
They wanted to run the HSR from Tampa to Orlando, the problem there is the lack of mass transit once you get to either destination. Thanks to poor planning and uncontrolled sprawl, what do you if you took the rail from Orlando to Tampa and need to get around Tampa? Rent a car? So why not just drive in the first place.
Those are fair points, but I don't think the answer to those concerns is "So we shouldn't have any high speed rail in the first place." Better planning would have the LA end of the line be at Union Station, and a Florida HSR would obviously be improved by implementing much better mass transit systems at both destinations. Just because there has been some poor planning and some issues that will also need to be solved doesn't mean that HSR is a bad idea in the first place.
I've noticed that buses and trains tend to smell about the same. I don't fly any more so my info is dated but I can't recall one instance of a plane smelling like a city bus or commuter train. And I've been in some really crappy planes.
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