High speed train Dallas to Houston (San Antonio, Austin: cost, bus, airport)

[Spade]

Originally Posted by testmo

New orleans?! For what ungodly purpose would that serve? We should build a croc infested moat around NO as it is.

Dallas and houston share a common industry and like some people pointed out a ton of business travel passes between the two. Dallas is a better weekend trip for houstonians interested in arts, shopping, and food than austin is. Id use the rail for weekend trips just to enjoy both cities. Austin is easy to get to by car and can be pretty low traffic if you dont take 290

Im sure the dallas side of the rail would connect to the dart system there and tie houstons end into an expanded metro rail. You wouldnt need a car to enjoy either city. Austin doesnt have any rail prescence currently really

Agree. Other than recreation, what reason is there to choose New Orleans over Dallas? Rail to Dallas will make far more money than rail to New Orleans. Connection to 6 million plus metros seems like a no brainer.

[Nairobi]

Originally Posted by testmo

New orleans?! For what ungodly purpose would that serve? We should build a croc infested moat around NO as it is.

Dallas and houston share a common industry and like some people pointed out a ton of business travel passes between the two. Dallas is a better weekend trip for houstonians interested in arts, shopping, and food than austin is. Id use the rail for weekend trips just to enjoy both cities. Austin is easy to get to by car and can be pretty low traffic if you dont take 290

Im sure the dallas side of the rail would connect to the dart system there and tie houstons end into an expanded metro rail. You wouldnt need a car to enjoy either city. Austin doesnt have any rail prescence currently really

Since when do Houstonians take leisure trips to Dallas for the arts and...food? Hell, since when do Houstonians go to Austin?

A rail to New Orleans would make plenty of sense. Houston has a large ex-New Orleanian population and the city is one of the top domestic destinations on Southwest. They have many more festivals and events year-round that I personally would love easier access to; more so than anything going on in Dallas or Austin.

[Mr. Krinkle]

There are 12 SWA flights everyday on the hour between 6am and 6pm. I would rather pay $150 for a 2/12hr train ride for a business trip rather than deal with the hassle of airline BS.

[2nd trick op]

Dallas - Fort Worth got "conventional" rail commuter service a number of years ago, and as population density, which is the only driving factor worth using in justifying infrastructural investment, increases, I expect that service to expand, and Houston to follow suit, as Los Angeles and Miami have.

But the much-ballyhooed (and usually only from the Left side of the aisle) "High Speed Rail" is another matter entirely. The French and Japanese systems are the only two success stories, and that is largely because they were built entirely as new operations, and made possible by economic and political anomalies not found in the United States -- namely, the devestation of the former Japanese rail system in the Second World War, and the dominance of Paris alone among French cities.

Very expensively and very slowly, serious improvement in the speed and convenience of rail travel is emerging along the two Coasts, and in a hub-and-spoke pattern around Chicago. I expect both a Washington-Charlotte-Atlanta corridor, and a tri-cornered DFW-Houston-San Antonio project to slowly gain ground as congestion increases and fuel prices rise. But given that the redevelopment of Boston-Washington service has been under way for fifty years, I doubt that many now here will be around to witness their completion.

[bu2]

Some just don't get it. A private company is doing it, paying for it and thinks its worth it. Its one of the best spots for it in the country. Its flat and it doesn't have government getting in the way as much as elsewhere (although DFW with their typical infighting is causing some problems). They're talking about breaking ground in a couple of years.

[Oildog]

Originally Posted by Mr. Krinkle

There are 12 SWA flights everyday on the hour between 6am and 6pm. I would rather pay $150 for a 2/12hr train ride for a business trip rather than deal with the hassle of airline BS.

You can add the flights from Bush to New Orleans as well. Big offshore oil presence in that area.

[d from birmingham]

Originally Posted by 2nd trick op

Dallas - Fort Worth got "conventional" rail commuter service a number of years ago, and as population density, which is the only driving factor worth using in justifying infrastructural investment, increases, I expect that service to expand, and Houston to follow suit, as Los Angeles and Miami have.

But the much-ballyhooed (and usually only from the Left side of the aisle) "High Speed Rail" is another matter entirely. The French and Japanese systems are the only two success stories, and that is largely because they were built entirely as new operations, and made possible by economic and political anomalies not found in the United States -- namely, the devestation of the former Japanese rail system in the Second World War, and the dominance of Paris alone among French cities.

Very expensively and very slowly, serious improvement in the speed and convenience of rail travel is emerging along the two Coasts, and in a hub-and-spoke pattern around Chicago. I expect both a Washington-Charlotte-Atlanta corridor, and a tri-cornered DFW-Houston-San Antonio project to slowly gain ground as congestion increases and fuel prices rise. But given that the redevelopment of Boston-Washington service has been under way for fifty years, I doubt that many now here will be around to witness their completion.

Actually all high speed rail systems pay for themselves in a decade after becoming operational.

The US does have a high speed rail system which generates 25% of Amtrak's revenue. The Acela Express which cost 1.2 billion dollars generates in excess of 400 million dollars in revenue each year and serves 3 million passengers each year. The operating speed is 150 miles per hour with the top speed being 165. Due to the Acela Express a number of airlines have canceled services in the area and highway traffic congestion has drastically reduced.

The other major source which is another 25% is the Northeast Regional which is a higher speed rail which has a max speed of 125 miles per hour and serves 8 million people a year. This rail also gets over 400 million in revenue each year.

Also highways per mile tend to cost more per high speed rail not only in construction costs but maintenance and serve far fewer people. Also no highway has ever paid for itself or generated a profit while high speed railways tend to break even in a decade and start generating a profit.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by d from birmingham

Actually all high speed rail systems pay for themselves in a decade after becoming operational.

The US does have a high speed rail system which generates 25% of Amtrak's revenue. The Acela Express which cost 1.2 billion dollars generates in excess of 400 million dollars in revenue each year and serves 3 million passengers each year. The operating speed is 150 miles per hour with the top speed being 165. Due to the Acela Express a number of airlines have canceled services in the area and highway traffic congestion has drastically reduced.

The other major source which is another 25% is the Northeast Regional which is a higher speed rail which has a max speed of 125 miles per hour and serves 8 million people a year. This rail also gets over 400 million in revenue each year.

Also highways per mile tend to cost more per high speed rail not only in construction costs but maintenance and serve far fewer people. Also no highway has ever paid for itself or generated a profit while high speed railways tend to break even in a decade and start generating a profit.

Do you have any support for that? My guess is the last half of your sentence is total fiction. Can you prove me wrong?

[HouTXmetro]

Originally Posted by Nairobi

Since when do Houstonians take leisure trips to Dallas for the arts and...food? Hell, since when do Houstonians go to Austin?

A rail to New Orleans would make plenty of sense. Houston has a large ex-New Orleanian population and the city is one of the top domestic destinations on Southwest. They have many more festivals and events year-round that I personally would love easier access to; more so than anything going on in Dallas or Austin.

THIS..... I would love HS Rail to NOLA. I'd imagine trip would take 2:30 hours or so. Austin would be nice too.

[d from birmingham]

Originally Posted by bu2

Do you have any support for that? My guess is the last half of your sentence is total fiction. Can you prove me wrong?

Acela run expected to match U.S. rail speed record of 165 mph - Baltimore Sun

"Given the competition, low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines is eliminating service between Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and two New York metropolitan airports, LaGuardia and Newark."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/16/bu...f=general&_r=0

"Between New York and Washington, Amtrak said, 75 percent of travelers go by train, a huge share that has been building steadily since the Acela was introduced in 2000 and airport security was tightened after 2001. Before that, Amtrak had just over a third of the business between New York and Washington.

In the same period, Amtrak said, its market share between New York and Boston grew to 54 percent from 20 percent.

Nationally, Amtrak ridership is at a record 30 million people; the Northeast accounts for more than a third of that and is virtually the only portion of Amtrak’s system that makes money."

"The Acela has played a big role in attracting passengers in the Northeast. The trains averaged about 80 percent full and earned an operating profit of more than $200 million last year on nearly $500 million in revenue."

U.S. high-speed rail 'myths' debunked - CNN.com

""For long distance travel, Americans rely on their cars and the airlines."

"This reliance has led to massive congestion along major transportation corridors like I-95 in the Northeast Corridor. Today, businesses and commuters lose $115 million each year in wasted time and fuel and spend four billion hours per year stuck in traffic. 60 percent of the urban road miles of Interstate 95 are heavily congested. 70 percent of our nation's chronically delayed flights originate in the New York-New Jersey airspace. There is simply no more effective way to alleviate congestion of our roads and airways and get people to their destinations than rail.""

So I would say more people using the Acela Express and Northeast Regional has eased Highway congestion in that part of the country since each year those lines see more and more people use them. There is plans to add more cars and trains to the Acela Express.