Would you use High Speed Rail in your region? (2013, college)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
10,720 posts, read 23,645,291 times
Reputation: 14561
Advertisements
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?
I would definitely ride it. A train ride through the US can be quite scenic and relaxing. I wouldn't mind taking a train from lets say portland to san francisco and have it only be a 6 hour ride. The train rides are already very long and that keeps a lot of people from riding it.
However, on the contrary high speed rail still wont be faster than plane travel. Plane's have the ability to move in a straight line for long distances while trains have to make constant detours. Oh not to mention that a train ride from lets say Seattle to San Francisco with HSR would be probably around 8 to 9 hours while a plane ride is around 2 hours. Add in the time spent at the airport and it is even shorter.
my region is going to me the first in the US to get high speed rail (Tampa Orlando then eventually Miami). Honestly I wouldn't use it THAT often cause I don't need to go to Tampa that much. But when I do, I'm never gonna drive there anymore. I'll use it to get to the clear gulf coast beaches, and to get to a concert over there maybe. I think it will benefit the college kids though, a lot of kids from Orlando go to USF in Tampa for college and a lot of kids in Tampa goes to UCF in Orlando I guess just to get away but still be somewhat close to home. This rail will make there lives much easier, they can come back and fourth for holidays, breaks, etc much more efficiently
But when the Miami line opens up a few years later I can definitely see me using it a lot..
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?
Houston doesn't even connect to the rest of the cities in TX, it only connects with New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HeyHolliday!
I would definitely ride it. A train ride through the US can be quite scenic and relaxing. I wouldn't mind taking a train from lets say portland to san francisco and have it only be a 6 hour ride. The train rides are already very long and that keeps a lot of people from riding it.
However, on the contrary high speed rail still wont be faster than plane travel. Plane's have the ability to move in a straight line for long distances while trains have to make constant detours. Oh not to mention that a train ride from lets say Seattle to San Francisco with HSR would be probably around 8 to 9 hours while a plane ride is around 2 hours. Add in the time spent at the airport and it is even shorter.
SF to Seattle or Portland is too far and not part of any HSR plan that I've seen. Vancouver-Eugene is one corridor, SD-SF is another totally separate corridor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GLS2010
my region is going to me the first in the US to get high speed rail (Tampa Orlando then eventually Miami). Honestly I wouldn't use it THAT often cause I don't need to go to Tampa that much. But when I do, I'm never gonna drive there anymore. I'll use it to get to the clear gulf coast beaches, and to get to a concert over there maybe. I think it will benefit the college kids though, a lot of kids from Orlando go to USF in Tampa for college and a lot of kids in Tampa goes to UCF in Orlando I guess just to get away but still be somewhat close to home. This rail will make there lives much easier, they can come back and fourth for holidays, breaks, etc much more efficiently
But when the Miami line opens up a few years later I can definitely see me using it a lot..
Unless you know something I don't, I'm pretty sure the Chicago-St. Louis corridor and the Chicago-Madison corridor are both going to be up and running by early 2013.
Haha , the only True long Distance High Speed line to open this decade is the Northeast Corridor. Which will have Average speeds increased to 170mph and tops of 190mph. The Northeast Corridor is used by 460,000+ Daily , on 1,200+ Trains. The Northeast Corridor is expected to rise to 600,000 daily by the end of the decade. Which would make one of the busiest Rail corridors in the World. As for the Florida line , its a shame in many ways , way too many stations. My Japanese friend said it would only have a top speed of a 100 mph which makes it slower then some Electric lines up here. I doubt will see anything in Texas , in-till the 2020s. I think the California network will be built by the Chinese and not the our GOVT, since we seem to be having funding problems. As for the Cascades Corridor , i believe they will upgrade to to an average speed of 110mph with 125mph tops. They ordered more Diesel tilting Talgo trains.
Some High Speed Action along the Northeast Corridor.
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
10,138 posts, read 15,945,245 times
Reputation: 4047
Quote:
Originally Posted by jjacobeclark
Houston doesn't even connect to the rest of the cities in TX, it only connects with New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region.
.
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.
Caphill, I've been talking about this for a while too in the Texas forums, and yes our state government has laid out the groundwork for this project. So whoever up there said the Texas Triangle isn't getting it is dead wrong.
By the way, this is what all the "bullet trains" rapid transit system will look like when they're completed.
Haha , the only True long Distance High Speed line to open this decade is the Northeast Corridor. Which will have Average speeds increased to 170mph and tops of 190mph. The Northeast Corridor is used by 460,000+ Daily , on 1,200+ Trains. The Northeast Corridor is expected to rise to 600,000 daily by the end of the decade. Which would make one of the busiest Rail corridors in the World. As for the Florida line , its a shame in many ways , way too many stations. My Japanese friend said it would only have a top speed of a 100 mph which makes it slower then some Electric lines up here. I doubt will see anything in Texas , in-till the 2020s. I think the California network will be built by the Chinese and not the our GOVT, since we seem to be having funding problems. As for the Cascades Corridor , i believe they will upgrade to to an average speed of 110mph with 125mph tops. They ordered more Diesel tilting Talgo trains.
Some High Speed Action along the Northeast Corridor.
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.
I live in Tampa and go to Orlando once every couple of years usually to an amusment park. So I'll will use it so I don't have to sit in that horrible Orlando traffic anymore.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.