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Obama cant figure out any other ways to waste money!
Am-trak.......broke
NYC MTA.....broke
and so are most of all the other govt. run rail or subways....more waste of $$$$$$
AM-Trac is broken because of total mismangment and over priced tickets.
NYC MTA- LOL same issue.
In other words to many politicians keep them floundering so they are a never ending sourse of pork.
I was watchig CNN and they were discussing obamas speech. They pointed out what repairs to a line on the east coast was going to cost ;estimated at 9 billion and experts conclude a new line is unlikely to happen because new line and train woulkd be much ;much higher. But even then the new system is likely to be foreign made they said because they are so advanced and cost of any american comany developing such would be unthinable. That they said makes it even less likely in this poltical climate.
I have worked for one of the largest railroads in the country for 36 years now.High speed rail is NOT a viable concept unless used in very short lines in high density areas.Then the costs are astronomical.you can only run so many trains at a time.I was told 20 years ago that to build one mile of new track costs 1 million dollars.that does not include maintainence.The electronics for just one vehicular crossing alone is over 100K.The federal criteria for passenger rail speeds over 79 MPH are very stringent and require massive amounts of labor and continual replacement of rail ,ties, switches,ETC. not to mention constant surfacing and inspections.Every vehicular crossing would need all new electronic upgrading.
On top of all that, most rail lines in America are operating at capacity or above.There is no room for more passenger service.The rail companies make much more money operating with just freight.for those of you who think the rail industry is broke,we haul 40% of the nations freight.In the 70's and 80's the rail companies got lean and mean.they tore up all lines not making a profit.with the mergers and deregulation they are making a lot of money.Ask warren buffet..............
I was watchig CNN and they were discussing obamas speech. They pointed out what repairs to a line on the east coast was going to cost ;estimated at 9 billion and experts conclude a new line is unlikely to happen because new line and train woulkd be much ;much higher. But even then the new system is likely to be foreign made they said because they are so advanced and cost of any american comany developing such would be unthinable. That they said makes it even less likely in this poltical climate.
The NEC upgrade will cost 6 billion , and is much need and is already happening in , NJ , so parts of CT , PA.
It should be built where there are enough people who will actually use it to pay for it. Maybe somewhere on the east coast, it's a complete waste of money in the Seattle area. They spent billions on light rail that few people use. Now the state wants $600 million in federal dollars just to get the train to Portland, which takes an hour longer than driving, to run on time. Not faster, no additional stops, just on time.
If there are enough people between Boston and Richland to pay for it, go for it, but don't use federal funds to pay for it.
I have worked for one of the largest railroads in the country for 36 years now.High speed rail is NOT a viable concept unless used in very short lines in high density areas.Then the costs are astronomical.you can only run so many trains at a time.I was told 20 years ago that to build one mile of new track costs 1 million dollars.that does not include maintainence.The electronics for just one vehicular crossing alone is over 100K.The federal criteria for passenger rail speeds over 79 MPH are very stringent and require massive amounts of labor and continual replacement of rail ,ties, switches,ETC. not to mention constant surfacing and inspections.Every vehicular crossing would need all new electronic upgrading.
On top of all that, most rail lines in America are operating at capacity or above.There is no room for more passenger service.The rail companies make much more money operating with just freight.for those of you who think the rail industry is broke,we haul 40% of the nations freight.In the 70's and 80's the rail companies got lean and mean.they tore up all lines not making a profit.with the mergers and deregulation they are making a lot of money.Ask warren buffet..............
High speed rail is a viable concept - if the government was not involved. In the sense that there were no taxes, regulations or bureaucrats mucking up things.
Federal Railroad Administration is a boat anchor on railroads. Several examples of medieval rules are mentioned here: Passenger Rail for the Shasta Route: Table of Contents "In the USA, trains like the type 411 EMU are not allowed to operate. US regulations require a very high carbody strength for political reasons, which adds several tons of weight to a vehicle.If this mass is added to a European tilting EMU or DMU, it is no longer safe to operate at 11.8 inches of unbalanced superelevation, because the maximum safe axleload is exceeded. The Acela Express is built to these strength standards. It is nearly double as heavy as European or Japanese tilting trains. Instead of restricting the axleload to 16 tons or less, the powercars weigh 25 tons per axle. No safety authority would allow values like those for the German 411 or 610 for this train, because the forces at the wheel-rail contact point would be too high for safe operation. As a result, the "Acela Express" loses about half an hour between New York and Boston, compared to best practice in tilting train usage. (It also loses at least half an hour, compared to the calculations of US railroad engineers in the 1960s.) If this half hour of running time from New York to Boston needs to be cut away by infrastructure investment instead, a three-digit number of millions in additional public investment will be needed at least. A similar situation will be found with almost all upgrade projects for curvy track."
It's true that the American railroads optimized their tracks for slow, heavy freight, and not fast light passenger trains. Which probably means that a parallel track suited for such trains would probably need to be built.
It's also true, that railroad companies tore up tracks - partly because the brain dead government TAXES forced them into such a stupid move.
Frankly, instead of spending public funds on railroads, we should just eliminate taxes on all companies (and their employees) who build, operate and maintain electric powered rail transit. Investment capital would flood into getting America "back on track", all without the political shenanigans and bureaucrats.
OK so we are going to build a high speed train. So the question is where should it be built? I am not against speedy rail service but it seems that the best place to start such a thing would be in highly congested areas with a medium to high population density. I would say Boston to Richmond VA would be the ideal place to start on the east coast and San Diego to San Fransisco on the west coast. But there are other proposals. What do you think?
This is one part of the current administration's agenda that I GREATLY support. I hope that this gets the funding it needs to become a reality. I'm a big proponent of good mass transit.
So far, 75% of those polled here are in favor of high speed rail. I'd say that's a good approval percentage. It will be interesting to see how the numbers work out over the course of days, weeks, months, etc.
nobody can agree on where it should be built though.
i bet the enthusiasm would be a lot less if they knew that their taxes would go up to have to fund "their" share of the project. maybe people are just voting for a project to bring jobs to their area.
High speed rail is a viable concept - if the government was not involved. In the sense that there were no taxes, regulations or bureaucrats mucking up things.
Federal Railroad Administration is a boat anchor on railroads. Several examples of medieval rules are mentioned here: Passenger Rail for the Shasta Route: Table of Contents "In the USA, trains like the type 411 EMU are not allowed to operate. US regulations require a very high carbody strength for political reasons, which adds several tons of weight to a vehicle.If this mass is added to a European tilting EMU or DMU, it is no longer safe to operate at 11.8 inches of unbalanced superelevation, because the maximum safe axleload is exceeded. The Acela Express is built to these strength standards. It is nearly double as heavy as European or Japanese tilting trains. Instead of restricting the axleload to 16 tons or less, the powercars weigh 25 tons per axle. No safety authority would allow values like those for the German 411 or 610 for this train, because the forces at the wheel-rail contact point would be too high for safe operation. As a result, the "Acela Express" loses about half an hour between New York and Boston, compared to best practice in tilting train usage. (It also loses at least half an hour, compared to the calculations of US railroad engineers in the 1960s.) If this half hour of running time from New York to Boston needs to be cut away by infrastructure investment instead, a three-digit number of millions in additional public investment will be needed at least. A similar situation will be found with almost all upgrade projects for curvy track."
It's true that the American railroads optimized their tracks for slow, heavy freight, and not fast light passenger trains. Which probably means that a parallel track suited for such trains would probably need to be built.
It's also true, that railroad companies tore up tracks - partly because the brain dead government TAXES forced them into such a stupid move.
Frankly, instead of spending public funds on railroads, we should just eliminate taxes on all companies (and their employees) who build, operate and maintain electric powered rail transit. Investment capital would flood into getting America "back on track", all without the political shenanigans and bureaucrats.
i like it! it would certainly be nice to have investment capital flowing INTO the country for a change....
I read that steam engine pulled passenger trains were frequently travelling at 100+ mph on the NYC between Buffalo, NY and Chicago, IL in the 1890's and early 1900's. The 20th Century Limited took less than 24 hours between NYC and Chicago. They were high tech for the day but that day was one hundred years ago. We have the technology to do this safely right now. After all a passenger can get on a train in downtown London and be in the south of France that evening and that train is not powered by imported oil.
We do not have a viable passenger rail system because the competitors do not want us to have that choice. The auto, interurban bus and aircraft industries are in direct opposition and the railroads don't want any interference with their long haul monopolies even if they still only manage to average 25 mph from California to New York with a "special" high speed (there is a joke there somewhere) perishables freight.
I am tired of our government subsidizing airlines, bus companies and automobile travel but not doing the same for high speed rail. Developing HSR equipment in this country would aid our economy, employ thousands of scientists, engineers and construction workers and well as provide profits for our markets.
We could have the finest and most extensive system in the world with the money we pissed away on Bush’s little vengeance war in Iraq and our Imperial ambitions in Afghanistan. We need to return to taking care of Americans in America and let the rest of the world dissolve onto whatever it becomes even if that is unrelenting religious warfare. In addition to HSR proper investment could eliminate our need for foreign oil forever.
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