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Old 06-20-2022, 02:28 PM
 
18,127 posts, read 25,272,176 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hbcu View Post
going to dallas is going to cost $100 one way by car or for some cars already is - if rail can come in at $75 a ticket with less wear and tear on the body I'll easily pay a ticket
Rail should be subsidized
Why? Because the more people that ride it, the less the government will have to spend on adding more lanes to I-45.

Price tag to widen I-10 rises to $2.2 billion
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Old 06-20-2022, 02:40 PM
 
Location: Houston
1,722 posts, read 1,022,267 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LocalPlanner View Post
The target market was always those who fly today, especially business flyers. Conversions from driving would have been gravy.
Yes, exactly. I took a weekend trip to Fort Worth in May... used miles for airline and car rental... it took me almost 6 hours door to door, leaving my house to arriving at the hotel in Fort Worth... awful... I knew I should have driven and would have been there in 4 hours.

Rail would probably have taken 2-3 hours door to door.
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Old 06-20-2022, 03:17 PM
 
Location: Houston
5,612 posts, read 4,935,144 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SanJac View Post
Yes, exactly. I took a weekend trip to Fort Worth in May... used miles for airline and car rental... it took me almost 6 hours door to door, leaving my house to arriving at the hotel in Fort Worth... awful... I knew I should have driven and would have been there in 4 hours.

Rail would probably have taken 2-3 hours door to door.
For some, rail would have been more convenient and saved time, yes. Not for everyone though - if you happen to live much closer to one of the airports rather than the downtown, flying might come out fairly even, even with security procedures.
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Old 06-20-2022, 04:33 PM
 
23,177 posts, read 12,208,008 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dopo View Post
Rail should be subsidized
Why? Because the more people that ride it, the less the government will have to spend on adding more lanes to I-45.

Price tag to widen I-10 rises to $2.2 billion

No, you don't spend ten dollars to save a dollar. A $2B highway project will benefit 10x more people than a $2B rail project.
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Old 06-20-2022, 04:40 PM
 
23,177 posts, read 12,208,008 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SanJac View Post
Yes, exactly. I took a weekend trip to Fort Worth in May... used miles for airline and car rental... it took me almost 6 hours door to door, leaving my house to arriving at the hotel in Fort Worth... awful... I knew I should have driven and would have been there in 4 hours.

Rail would probably have taken 2-3 hours door to door.

Why did it take you six hours? And what did you base your rail time on?
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Old 06-20-2022, 05:38 PM
 
18,127 posts, read 25,272,176 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oceangaia View Post
No, you don't spend ten dollars to save a dollar. A $2B highway project will benefit 10x more people than a $2B rail project.
Reality is that a train line can be run on TWO lanes of highway
Highways in Houston are typically 14 lanes wide, 8 highway and 6 feeder road
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Old 06-20-2022, 07:14 PM
 
Location: Houston
1,722 posts, read 1,022,267 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oceangaia View Post
Why did it take you six hours? And what did you base your rail time on?
12:15 Depart for IAH (FYI got stuck in horrendous IAH construction traffic but had plenty of time to catch my flight)…normally a 30 minute commute but with traffic took an hour
1:15 Inside airport
1:45 waiting at gate
2:42 Depart for DFW
3:50 Arrive in DFW
4:20 Arrive at car rental center
5:20 Depart car rental center (line was ridiculously long and only two attendants)
6:00 Arrive at hotel in Fort Worth (after driving through rush hour traffic)

I could have left my house in my own car at 12:15 and arrived in Fort Worth by 4:15.

I based the rail time on a closer location than IAH(If NW mall 10 minutes from my house), 1 hour arrival time to Dallas, time to rent a car to travel to Fort Worth. I guess this assumes I wouldn’t have to shuttle for 30 minutes to a car rental agency. If I were to stay in downtown Dallas then it would definitely be only 2-3 hours.
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Old 06-20-2022, 07:32 PM
 
23,177 posts, read 12,208,008 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SanJac View Post
12:15 Depart for IAH (FYI got stuck in horrendous IAH construction traffic but had plenty of time to catch my flight)…normally a 30 minute commute but with traffic took an hour
1:15 Inside airport
1:45 waiting at gate
2:42 Depart for DFW
3:50 Arrive in DFW
4:20 Arrive at car rental center
5:20 Depart car rental center (line was ridiculously long and only two attendants)
6:00 Arrive at hotel in Fort Worth (after driving through rush hour traffic)

I could have left my house in my own car at 12:15 and arrived in Fort Worth by 4:15.

I based the rail time on a closer location than IAH(If NW mall 10 minutes from my house), 1 hour arrival time to Dallas, time to rent a car to travel to Fort Worth. I guess this assumes I wouldn’t have to shuttle for 30 minutes to a car rental agency. If I were to stay in downtown Dallas then it would definitely be only 2-3 hours.

Just be sure to include the local traffic and rental counter delays at both venues. Over 2 hours of that was after arrival in DFW. Either way, where you're starting from and going to at each end is going to determine the difference more than the mode of travel.
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Old 06-20-2022, 07:35 PM
 
23,177 posts, read 12,208,008 times
Reputation: 29354
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dopo View Post
Reality is that a train line can be run on TWO lanes of highway
Highways in Houston are typically 14 lanes wide, 8 highway and 6 feeder road

Reality is that those 14 lanes can be built cheaper than a train line. And the feeder lanes are serving local traffic that are needed even with rail. Building a rail line isn't going to reduce your roadway needs by much.
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Old 06-21-2022, 10:19 AM
 
8,886 posts, read 5,366,982 times
Reputation: 5690
Quote:
Originally Posted by hbcu View Post
going to dallas is going to cost $100 one way by car or for some cars already is - if rail can come in at $75 a ticket with less wear and tear on the body I'll easily pay a ticket
Today is Tuesday June 21, 2022 the time is 11:12 AM. I visited the Amtrack site, and asked about a ticket quote departing this Friday to Dallas (anytime) and returning on Sunday (Anytime) from Houston. There are no results. I do not know where you get $75 a ticket, but I have a choice to pay $260 by Jet round trip drive or take Greyhound for $85 each way.

To have service every 20 or so minutes would mean running mostly empty trains most of the time. This is antithetical to being green. Many do not consider Greyhound the best mode of transport. A jet is sort of expensive, requires extensive car travel and parking. No mass transit solution works well if you don't live or travel inside each city. If you live in the greater Houston area and wish to visit the Greater Dallas area, you don't really have a mass transit solution.

So in an imaginary world, with imaginary trains and imaginary costs, yes imaginary travel by rail sounds great. In reality, it has issues.
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