Should we built the high speed rail network? (Congress, Palestinian, Israeli)
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No, regular ole math and basic economics tell me that new, better transportation system that boosts real estate values, encourages business growth and creates thousands of jobs is a good thing.
Sorry no sale, a HSR system wil not benefit me in any way, but you go ahead and pay for it you like.
Electric Traction Rail is the most efficient form of land transport +
High speed rail is much more expensive than moderate and slow speed rail --
Government funding (or management) is a recipe for disaster, with a guarantee of delays, red tape, bureaucracy, politics and corruption - - - -
For long distances, passenger air travel will be more desirable -
For short and moderate distances, moderate speed passenger rail would be acceptable ++
For optimum results, consolidation of population will be necessary, and should parallel the expansion of electric traction rail service -+-+
Alternative high speed systems may be more attractive than HSR (i.e., vacuum tube mag-lev, capable of supersonic speeds at ground level, with no sonic booms) -+
The highly subjective score is :
NO HSR - but
DO transition to electric traction rail for freight, and moderate speed passenger service
IMPROVE city to city air travel (i.e., implement compound hybrid gyrocopters, etc.)
Instead of High Speed Rail - - -
A superior land based transportation system could incorporate Inductrack [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductrack] utilizing Halbach arrays [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halbach_array] within an evacuated tube "Vactrain" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_tube_train] capable of speeds in excess of 1000 mph.
Expensive? Yes!
Inductrack is a passive, fail-safe electrodynamic magnetic levitation system, using only unpowered loops of wire in the track and permanent magnets (arranged into Halbach arrays) on the vehicle to achieve magnetic levitation. Advantages:
The lack of air resistance could permit vactrains to use little power and to move at extremely high speeds, up to 4000 - 5000 mph (6400 - 8000 km/h, 2 km/s), or 5-6 times the speed of sound at sea level and standard conditions. Travel through evacuated tubes allows supersonic speed without the penalty of sonic boom found with supersonic aircraft.
To travel 300 miles (from LA to SF), would take 5 minutes @ 4000 mph.
Now, THAT'S high speed.
Sorry no sale, a HSR system wil not benefit me in any way, but you go ahead and pay for it you like.
I don't know where you live or what you do for a living. However, it will benefit our country, on the whole. Even if it doesn't benefit you, Frank DeForrest the individual, it will create many, many jobs. Why wouldn't you want that for our country?
It sounds good on paper, like most progressive ideas (when you remove accountability and logic), but these things rarely, if ever, work in the real world.
I think the most important thing is to use developing and building HSR as an alternate to employing people to develop and build weapons we do not nor ever will need. We should transfer at least half of our current defense spending to domestic infrastructure projects. High Speed Rail could be the showcase for that change in priorities. It would also be a change in our economy from the failed FIRE consumer economy back to a manufacturing and export economy that would provide real wealth instead of costly credit.
The map posted earlier should be just a start in a complete network from Downeast Maine to San Diego and Seattle to Miami. Connecting Chicago to New Orleans is also obvious. We could start financing this development by removing Federal subsidies from the airline industry starting with Air Traffic Control and all the rest. In accordance with modern business “principals” these costs should be paid for by the passengers and freight shippers.
Developing HSR may or may not benefit me directly bur I am certain that spending trillions to blow up villages half a world away to somehow “guarantee” our financiers access to future resource development does not nor ever will. If FDF can sanctimoniously complain the HSR will never benefit him I can do the same about our expensive commercial Imperium and the outrageous War Machine and the profiteers that feed off the military spending.
High speed rail wouldn't be a bad idea. I mean, imagine having and option of being able to travel affordably and take an extended weekend trip from say Cleveland to Los Angeles which would probably cost less than flying. However; who is going to pay for it? That is the issue, and until we cut spending, I'm afraid it's not going to happen anytime soon.
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