National Geographic Best Of The World Must-See Places for 2012 (Pittsburgh: prices, airport)

[tread102]

Originally Posted by UKyank

I will concede the point that purely a Pgh-DC/philly HSR route is more fantasy because the number of potential of riders would dwarf the costs associated at the moment, I would not however disregard a greater line connecting Chicago to DC with Pittsburgh being a logical stop en route.
I think you are underestimating the pluses that HSR has over air travel. Have you ever taken a HSR anywhere?

Further distances air wins hands down but I think Chicago falls within an acceptable distance range.

No way Chicago is too far. Its 700 miles by car. Its unlikely they would build a track completely straight. Even if they did your talking 600 miles. At 200 mph(highly unlikely) your at 3 hrs. Factor in stops in other cities and your looking at 5 to 6 hours for a trip, when you can fly in less than 2 hrs.

I think if you wanted to build a line it should be from DC to the northeast someplace. Id say go as far as boston. There is too much air congestion. Something needs to be done with that soon. NYC is no peach to get to from the airports. Build it there. Sure the costs would be sky high, but the use would be as well

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I'm not liking all of this national attention Pittsburgh is getting. Everyone's going to move here and ruin it.

At the very least, our archaic road layouts won't be able to handle a huge influx of people. Not that our crazy road system is entirely avoidable due to our topography but still, more traffic clogging our roads would be an epic nightmare. Not to mention PAT going down in flames.

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I'm not liking all of this national attention Pittsburgh is getting. Everyone's going to move here and ruin it.

Yep....Just like it Ruined NYC.....Today's NYC is nothing like it was back in the 90's....Thanks to all TV/Movies depicting a so-called "NYC Life"

You want the Burgh to grow but you don't want a flood/boom....I only see the City itself handling around 450K and still maintaining its "Low" Cost of Living....if the population heads north of that we'll start feeling the Squeeze, hopefully the economy is in a better place by then so the COL increase is mitigated.

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by tread102

No way Chicago is too far. Its 700 miles by car. Its unlikely they would build a track completely straight. Even if they did your talking 600 miles. At 200 mph(highly unlikely) your at 3 hrs. Factor in stops in other cities and your looking at 5 to 6 hours for a trip, when you can fly in less than 2 hrs.

I think if you wanted to build a line it should be from DC to the northeast someplace. Id say go as far as boston. There is too much air congestion. Something needs to be done with that soon. NYC is no peach to get to from the airports. Build it there. Sure the costs would be sky high, but the use would be as well

for true HSR in the NEC you would have to build any entirely new ROW from DC to BOS...The Current NEC has way too much congestion around NYC alone to ever think trains get higher speeds than the Acela does today....Plus the Current NEC has to share with other Regional Amtrak trains and a ton of Commuter Trains....and building a ROW for just for HSR use will not see the passenger loads of today if pricing is North of what the Acela cost today.

I agree its better for Pittsburgh to be a Junction for linking East Coast - Mid-West Connection rather than and End Point from the East Coast. Thing is we would've have the Mid-west covered with connections of the OH HSR The C's Plan which involved lines from each of the 3 C's into Pittsburgh.....But Gov Kasich and the "We Can't Afford HSR" Far Right of the state killed the plan dead, and it looks like it's going to come back to bite the Gov in the ass too.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

Yep....Just like it Ruined NYC.....Today's NYC is nothing like it was back in the 90's....Thanks to all TV/Movies depicting a so-called "NYC Life"

You want the Burgh to grow but you don't want a flood/boom....I only see the City itself handling around 450K and still maintaining its "Low" Cost of Living....if the population heads north of that we'll start feeling the Squeeze, hopefully the economy is in a better place by then so the COL increase is mitigated.

Eh, I prefer today's NYC over the 90s NYC minus the hipsters

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by UKyank

Eh, I prefer today's NYC over the 90s NYC minus the hipsters

What about the 70's NYC? I've watched dozens and dozens of films shot in the seedy underbelly of NYC in the 70's and with grindhouses, porn theaters, punk rock clubs, crime, and drugs it seemed like the trashiest place on the planet. This was before my time, but if the reality was anything like it was depicted on film today's NYC looks 10x better (or worse depending on people's standards).

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I'm not liking all of this national attention Pittsburgh is getting. Everyone's going to move here and ruin it.

Pitt's football coach just ran off after less than one year to Arizona State so I guess it's not that great.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

Because Planet Earth is running out of oil and we're running out of brown people countries to bomb to satisfy our oil lust which will eventually be part of our American collapse.

Canada and Venezuela have vast oil sands. We just need to figure out how to extract it efficiently and we, our children, and our children's children can drive SUVs for decades to come.

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by UKyank

Eh, I prefer today's NYC over the 90s NYC minus the hipsters

The Hipsters is the difference factor

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by tread102

Then someone said oh Terrorists don't attack trains much, but they attack trains just like anything else.

The point is that the threat posed by such attacks is much lower, which is why security screening for trains is far less onerous in every developed country.

As for the pit to dc route. Even less go there so that one makes no sense at all.

There are many daily flights between DC and Pittsburgh. HSR could (and very likely would) take over a lot of that traffic, freeing up congested airport space in DC.

I also don't want to hear, oh you could extend it to Cleveland Detroit or Chicago. Again other than cleveland those cities are too far away and it makes way more sense to fly than to ride a train that goes a 3rd or the speed as a plane.

Chicago is still within the range from DC where HSR has proven to take at least some share from air traffic. As would be Toronto, Detroit, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Columbus.