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Yes...but the United States has NO TRUE high speed rail corridors and Acela does not qualify as such when compared to true high speed rail like in Japan.
If high speed rail was constructed in your area, would you use it? Lets say like in California, would you ride the rails from LA to the Bay area, or Las Vegas? Or Perhaps the Texas triangle (DFW/Austin-San Antonio/Houston), or maybe upgrade the Northeast corridor rails (the Amtak Acela train has got nothing on the TGV in France). Would you feel it was a better option as oppose to long road trips in your vehicle or short hop flights, or do you feel it is not worth the cost?
Considering I use Amtrak on a fairly regular basis where I live now (1/4 mile outside Washington DC) and also used Amtrak on a regular basis where I lived from mid-2000 to early 2008 (Harrisburg area), it's a no-brainer that I'd use higher speed rail if it were available and didn't cost and arm and a leg.
Actually, what I'd like is more reliable and more frequent rail service between Washington and downtown Richmond (talking about only rail corridors that currently exist).
I would DEFINITELY use High Speed Rail, especailly if they restored the rail service between my town and Philly. I would take it to get to NYC, Newark (for school), D.C., Boston (visiting friends), and to visit my sister in Georgia.
also, Acela is a poor excuse for high speed rail. It needs to go AVERAGE at least 150mph before I'm willing to call it high speed rail.
Yeah it does, I-45 north from Houston to Dallas, I-10 west from Houston to San Antonio, I-35 from San Antonio to Dallas. Houston and Dallas are the same distance from San Antonio. By the way, Houston does not connect more to New Orleans than it does to other Texas cities. It is 2 hours closer to Austin/San Antonio than New Orleans. New Orleans from Houston is a 5 hour drive, San Antonio and Austin each are 3 hour drives. I would know, I live in Houston and go to college in Austin, and drive to San Antonio all the time. The distance from Houston to Dallas is the same as New Orleans to Houston almost, the drive time is the same. I normally hate driving to either... hurts the shoulders. And Houston is a hybrid, it's a cross of two mega regions, refer to the map below to see what I'm talking about.
High-Speed Rail Corridor Descriptions
This map is from the DOT website, so it's official. Notice how Houston doesn't connect with any other cities in TX.
The Florida line will reach speeds of around 200mph between Orlando and Miami. The Orlando to Tampa (the first high speed rail line in the US) line will only hit about 130mph because the cities are so close. But it will still cut the hour long drive into a 30 min train ride.
Did you miss my earlier post? St. Louis-Chicago and Madison-Chicago will both be operational in less than 3 years.
http://www.midwesthsr.org/images/network/midwest_hub_map_30Jun09_large.gif (broken link) Electric & Tilting Diesel
Planned / Proposed National HSR Network Speeds anywhere form 110-240mph
Northeast Network should be all True High Speed Rail by 2025 at an average speed 150-70mph and tops of 200-40mph. But the Keystone & Empire corridors will upgrade slowly. Electric & tilting diesel lines
Planned / Proposed New England High Speed Rail / Regional Rail Map speeds of 110-150mph. Electric & tilting diesel lines
This map is from the DOT website, so it's official. Notice how Houston doesn't connect with any other cities in TX.
That's weird because I always see things in Houston whenever I go to downtown of them talking about their connection with San Antonio and Dallas on this soon.
Maybe their talking about a different type of rapid transit (bullet train) system? Possibly Commuter Rail???
I mean even with inner cities it comes with levels;
This map is from the DOT website, so it's official. Notice how Houston doesn't connect with any other cities in TX.
That's interesting. Houston connects to New Orleans & Atlanta.
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