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Why do we need high-speed rail? Why spend billions of dollars on this when we can fly or drive across the country? To be "cool" like France or Japan (which are MUCH smaller countries than the US)? It doesn't make sense.
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
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Originally Posted by kazoopilot
Why do we need high-speed rail?.
Its faster, its cheaper, its more efficient than Air. And in general costs less when talking about petroleum to fill up. Its more of an intercontinental link. Its very much needed and it isn't so we can be "cool" like Japan & France.
I support this development, bring this to America!
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
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Originally Posted by kazoopilot
How is it faster? Airliners travel at 610 mph. High-speed rail travels at half that speed. Twice as slow.
This would put thousands of pilots out of a job, as well as other airline personnel like customer service agents and schedulers.
You're only thinking about it in those terms. Think about the moment you leave your house to the moment you board the plane, to the moment you land, to the moment you get to your destination.
These will go 200+ miles per hour. I've flown between Houston & DFW before, good 40 minute flight, but have to report to the airport an hour earlier, get bags checked in, arrive at DFW get bags picked up, get someone to pick me up. These will be connected to regional transit systems. No hassles when it comes to coming an hour early, and all that other trash that takes hours up at the airport.
Houston to Dallas = 90 minutes, so 50 minutes longer than flight, but less time taken in with airport hassles and security. Plus flying sucks anyways. Higher fares for extra carry on, higher fares for in flight food, higher fares for everything. They might as well charge you for breathing, because thats the direction those people are headed.
Chicago to Saint Louis will be faster, Chicago to Detroit will be faster.
People should expect to take this from Boston to Seattle or something, but what I'm saying is for short distance commutes this is far faster and more efficient.
Imagine this, work in Dallas but live in Houston, would you take HSR to work, or fly there? Want to go to the next Rockets game but live in Dallas, would you take HSR or fly to watch it?
Short Term distances = HSR is better.
Long Term distances = Airplane, because the USA is so freakin big!
Yes, Pilots will be downsized by Train Operators will be in supplement demand, its a trade off in terms of jobs. Pilots wont downsize that much immediately regardless.
I'll leave the rest of the advantage of HSR to Airplane to Nexis4Jersey to explain, being a Transportation Juggernaut, I know he'll make an appearance in this thread soon.
How is it faster? Airliners travel at 610 mph. High-speed rail travels at half that speed. Twice as slow.
This would put thousands of pilots out of a job, as well as other airline personnel like customer service agents and schedulers.
HSR can operate in Blizzards , Fog , Storms and other things airliners can't at a high speed. Trains can hold up to 2,000 ppl with large comfortable seats , your not crammed in like the airliners. They don't charge you for your extra baggage , you can bring pets on board as long as there in a carrier they don't charge for that , you can move freely on the train , theres alot of things you can do. Its also very cheap compared to a flight , you should come over to the Northeast and use our network. But this plan will not happen , simply because there is too much ridiculous political fighting.
HSR is so very much superior to airline travel it is ridiculous. All of what Danny and Nexis said is true. The one thing I HOPE doesn't happen though is this. Once HSR is the predominate form of transportation in the country, and I do believe it will happen, do you think they will start undercutting passengers like the airlines with space, charging for baggage, and then of course comes the security hassles and then delays because of terrorists and such?
I'd like to think that won't be so, but I can see it happening. There was a time in this country when airline travel was quite luxurious; as much so as train travel is now.
Remember the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark and how Indy got on that plane in total comfort and luxury?
Now look what airline travel has become. It's horrid. I can't even stand the SMELL of an airport anymore, seriously.
I hope the same doesn't happen to rail travel, but I can't see the greedy bean counters keeping their hands of squeezing train seats into 1.5' x 2' spaces, squeezing every possible person onto the train because hey, you know what rules don't you? That's right, the almighty dollar. Just food for thought. I'm just being the devil's advocate here.
Security will probably be just as tight. You KNOW these new trains will be a major terrorist target.
My thoughts too. Unlike air travel, there will literally be 10s of 1000s of miles of track to protect. How would we go about doing that? Not to mention security of those boarding the trains will become an issue. I certainly wish there was some kind of magic bullet that would make it not so but I'm just looking at things realistically. Although I do have to say that Europe has a fairly decent record with trains. However, they don't have a target painted on their backs like the U.S.
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
10,138 posts, read 16,060,443 times
Reputation: 4047
Quote:
Originally Posted by kazoopilot
Security will probably be just as tight. You KNOW these new trains will be a major terrorist target.
Likely, but not as much as airplanes and cars. Yes there are train robberies and hostage situations that can happen. But the trains stay on the tracks and cant be altered.
Planes carry an immense amount of gasoline, and so do cars, they are normally used more for terrorist activities because you would only need limited resources to ignite them and you can control where to target them, they aren't restricted to tracks. Given the amount of gasoline they carry for disposal they are already chemically dangerous areas and terrorists take advantage of such large carriers for gasoline when it comes to collision and ignition. Trains stick to the tracks, and cant be altered in their target. But yes security will be tight, but definitely no where near as inconvenient as the airport security will be.
I do see it changing from time to time Buzzpost, but we're the reason the airline industry became such a villain for travel. The airline industry was prosperous up till the mid 1990's when it started to go downhill, gasoline costs did its damage, and then security regulations being changed and loss of faith in airline travel in general. Its our faults because of the lack in faith in the airline industry fueled by higher costs by diminishing importance of the airline industry really took a toll on their quality of service.
I don't see that with rail travel happening immediately, not for decades actually, its more cost efficient on gasoline and will possibly be generated from different power sources. Some places in China has electric and magnetic forces for HSR. And I don't see the loss of faith in rail travel the way for air travel. That urgency and scare you get 10,000 feet above elevation is just something on another level that the next train robber on ground level.
Just my thoughts on it, Nexis normally does a better job than me though when it comes to emphasizing on Rail Transportation Advantages, so I'll leave it to him from here.
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