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

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

Yet Iraq's $70 million dollar high speed rail from Baghdad to Basrah pushes forward with our tax dollars. Perhaps that would be better spent here. Just a thought.

They are building a 300 mile HSR system for only $70 million? Bring them here to build our HSR.

[tread102]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

They are building a 300 mile HSR system for only $70 million? Bring them here to build our HSR.

Ah, but here that would be closer to a billion. They don't have union labor to worry about in Iraq.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

They are building a 300 mile HSR system for only $70 million? Bring them here to build our HSR.

Hell, for those prices I'll bring them here to rebuild Port Authority.

[UKyank]

So we shouldn't build HSR because of terrorism concerns but one in IRAQ is fine.

[tread102]

Originally Posted by UKyank

So we shouldn't build HSR because of terrorism concerns but one in IRAQ is fine.

Terrorism has nothing to do with it. I brought it up because someone said they would use it, because they wouldn't have to deal with the TSA. There would be some sort of screening, so thats a mute point. Then someone said oh Terrorists don't attack trains much, but they attack trains just like anything else.


List of terrorist incidents involving railway systems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The reason not to build has nothing to do with that though. It's because it doesn't make sense. The two routes brought up the most are, PIT to PHI, and PIT to DC. If you look at the numbers you will see nobody would ride those trains. 320,000 people flew the PIT to PHI route last year. I would say half of those only did it to connect to another flight. Thats less then a 1000 a day.

Now how many people drive a day? Probably not more than a 1000 a day, and of those most would still drive, because they would want to have their car.

As for the pit to dc route. Even less go there so that one makes no sense at all. Seriously how can anyone suggest that this would be a good idea to spend billions of dollars for something that less then a 1000 people a day would probably use? 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.

[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.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by tread102

As for the pit to dc route. Even less go there so that one makes no sense at all. Seriously how can anyone suggest that this would be a good idea to spend billions of dollars for something that less then a 1000 people a day would probably use? 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.

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.

[SammyKhalifa]

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.

Detroit's only 40 mi more distant from us than DC

[Hopes]

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

[tread102]

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.

Well those trains don't run themselves. You need a electric, and that requires fossil fuel or nuclear power. Oh sure we have wind and solar but not enough that is required to run these trains.