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View Poll Results: Should we build the HSR network
Yes 192 60.57%
No 125 39.43%
Voters: 317. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 11-30-2012, 05:25 AM
 
45,137 posts, read 26,317,877 times
Reputation: 24872

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Magritte25 View Post
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.

 
Old 11-30-2012, 05:56 AM
 
Location: somewhere in the woods
16,880 posts, read 15,169,069 times
Reputation: 5239
Quote:
Originally Posted by urbanlife78 View Post
Actually most liberals are for high speed rail.


I am all for high speed rail, as long as the taxpayer does not have to pay or subsidize 1 single penny of it.
 
Old 11-30-2012, 06:04 AM
 
Location: Prepperland
18,927 posts, read 14,111,175 times
Reputation: 16637
  1. Electric Traction Rail is the most efficient form of land transport +
  2. High speed rail is much more expensive than moderate and slow speed rail --
  3. Government funding (or management) is a recipe for disaster, with a guarantee of delays, red tape, bureaucracy, politics and corruption - - - -
  4. For long distances, passenger air travel will be more desirable -
  5. For short and moderate distances, moderate speed passenger rail would be acceptable ++
  6. For optimum results, consolidation of population will be necessary, and should parallel the expansion of electric traction rail service -+-+
  7. 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.
 
Old 11-30-2012, 06:12 AM
 
28,164 posts, read 25,235,101 times
Reputation: 16665
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank DeForrest View Post
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?
 
Old 11-30-2012, 06:13 AM
 
28,164 posts, read 25,235,101 times
Reputation: 16665
Quote:
Originally Posted by monkeywrenching View Post
I am all for high speed rail, as long as the taxpayer does not have to pay or subsidize 1 single penny of it.
Is there anything that taxes should go towards?
 
Old 11-30-2012, 06:19 AM
 
20,948 posts, read 19,015,110 times
Reputation: 10270
It is not needed or wanted by most.

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.
 
Old 11-30-2012, 06:23 AM
 
28,164 posts, read 25,235,101 times
Reputation: 16665
Quote:
Originally Posted by alphamale View Post
It is not needed or wanted by most.
Do you have a source backing your claim that HSRNs are not "needed or wanted by most"?
 
Old 11-30-2012, 06:26 AM
 
642 posts, read 1,111,712 times
Reputation: 508
Obama Replaces Costly High Speed Rail Plan With High Speed Bus Plan

 
Old 11-30-2012, 06:47 AM
 
Location: Londonderry, NH
41,478 posts, read 59,660,138 times
Reputation: 24860
Default High speed rail

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.
 
Old 11-30-2012, 06:47 AM
 
Location: A great city, by a Great Lake!
15,896 posts, read 11,959,798 times
Reputation: 7502
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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