No Bullet Train For Atlanta! (Greenville: buying, theater, taxes)

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey

By 2025 95% of the Northeast will be in reach of a commuter or Intercity line.

Depends on what your definition is of "in reach," or if you plan to remove from the northeast most of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, western Massachusetts, and upstate New York. These are mostly rural with vast areas with no rail and no need of rail.

By citing what you did, that 95% of the northeast will be "in reach" of a commuter or intercity rail line within 15 years, you lose credibility with me. Did you mean 95% of the population in the northeast? That is at least plausible, although not probable.

[DarkWolf]

Originally Posted by neil0311

Depends on what your definition is of "in reach," or if you plan to remove from the northeast most of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, western Massachusetts, and upstate New York. These are mostly rural with vast areas with no rail and no need of rail.

By citing what you did, that 95% of the northeast will be "in reach" of a commuter or intercity rail line within 15 years, you lose credibility with me. Did you mean 95% of the population in the northeast? That is at least plausible, although not probable.

Maine and Vermont and possibly New Hampshire are building a 80-120mph line over the next 2-10 years , VT is just upgrading it, eventually it will become to Boston-Montreal Corridor (150 mph). Maine is expanding and upgrading there corridors and i think NH and Maine are trying to get Amtrak off the Downeaster route and replace it will a faster Electric or Diesel commuter / Intercity line which alot ppl want. Western Mass is connecting in with CT via the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield line (2017) and there are plans to build a 120mph cross-state and into NY Rail line. Upstate New York will get rail , but due to the money situation (everything goes south) they will be last , behind even Maine.

[cityrover]

Still doesnt solve the basic problem that is american planning: how are you going to get to and from the station? i know, DRIVE. defeats the purpose, no?

Until you solve the end point issue, you are just wasting money (but thats what governments do) building stuff that later on will just turn into another CSX freight line

[BobKovacs]

Originally Posted by mike7586

Actually, I think it is ignorant to say "This is America, not Europe or Japan." We can take what is successful in other countries (some which are our competition) and tweak it so it works for OUR country. We do have a serious transportation problem in this country and it's just as important as health care, etc. This country's greed and people spending more than they can afford is another topic.

What "serious transportation problem" is that? Is there some huge bottleneck of goods that can't get delivered because of a lack of capacity? Is there food rotting on docks because it can't get delivered? Are people dying because they can't get from point A to point B?

Yes, we spent billions in the past building a highway network, and we now have a highway network- that doesn't mean that we need to again spend millions to build another network (trains) just because other countries are doing it. Even if we dispense with the "profit motive", what's the real benefit to spending billions on this rail network? Sure, some people will use it, but at what cost? Do you really think they'll fill a train from Raliegh to Atlanta? They can't even fill a train from Boston to DC, and that's a much bigger market.

If the usage is as great as you seem to think it is, will it wreak havoc on the airline industry, causing them to lose so many passengers that they need a bailout?

As Neil noted, no one can provide any facts or figures to show that there's a demand for this service that would make it even remotely worthwhile- even without taking ROI into account.

[DarkWolf]

Originally Posted by cityrover

Still doesnt solve the basic problem that is american planning: how are you going to get to and from the station? i know, DRIVE. defeats the purpose, no?

Until you solve the end point issue, you are just wasting money (but thats what governments do) building stuff that later on will just turn into another CSX freight line

Build Streetcar & Light Rail lines to hook into the High Speed Commuter lines here and also build Bus Rapid Transit, and Park & Ride doesn't defeat the purpose.

[johnatl]

When are we going to see our ROI on our roads?

Why are our roads and highways not turning a profit?

After the expense of adding HOT lanes to all of our previously paid for freeways, will they then be turning a profit?

Why ARE we spending hundreds of millions to add toll HOT lanes to freeways that already have been paid for?

[BobKovacs]

All I want is one simple answer:

Can someone explain to me how having high-speed bullet train service is going to solve a particular problem/issue in this country?

- Will it ease congestion?

- Will it provide travel for people who can't afford air travel or car travel?

- Will it stop global warming?

- Will it increase our ability to distribute goods and services?

People talk about how we need bullet trains, but I haven't seen a rational explanation of what we need them for.......

[PKCorey]

More federal transit money bypasses Georgia *| ajc.com

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by PKCorey

More federal transit money bypasses Georgia *| ajc.com

And the reason why?

The Federal Transit Administration on Tuesday published a list of 27 transit projects recommended for $1.8 billion in federal funding. Georgia wasn’t on it.

It couldn’t be. Georgia had no proposals up for consideration, FTA spokesman Paul Griffo said.

Georgia is going to have to real serious about transit lickety split.

Also, keep in mind that today's announcement is unconnected to the money that the City of Atlanta applied for to build the streetcar lines. That announcement will come later this month and is likely to be funded in some way since we actually have plans and stuff.

[reet4587]

Originally Posted by BobKovacs

All I want is one simple answer:

Can someone explain to me how having high-speed bullet train service is going to solve a particular problem/issue in this country?

- Will it ease congestion?

- Will it provide travel for people who can't afford air travel or car travel?

- Will it stop global warming?

- Will it increase our ability to distribute goods and services?

People talk about how we need bullet trains, but I haven't seen a rational explanation of what we need them for.......

These are great questions, Bob. I wish the Obama administration would provide more details about the benefits of high speed rail when they talk about it so that we could all easily understand the reasoning behind the investment. Here are a couple of benefits I know of:

There was an article in the Guardian UK a few months ago that provided some details about the benefits in fuel efficiency for using HSR versus short air travel. It looks like, even with the use of oil or coal-powered electricity, HSR is the clear winner over short air flights:
Government unveils high-speed rail plan to ground short flights | Politics | The Guardian

Also, having visited HSR stations in Europe myself, I can recommend it on the basis of putting the rail stations conveniently in the middle of the city -- something that can't be done with airports. Reducing the amount of travel to the HSR station versus an airport located well outside the city limits would also provide a kind of fuel efficiency as well as a convenience for riders.

The ticket price of travel on HSR, which is projected to be only marginally less expensive than plane ticket price, is a problem I haven't seen addressed anywhere. It's possible, of course, that having direct competition for passengers between air and rail will help bring prices down. That certainly has proven to be true with airlines competing for passengers along the same routes.