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Would Americans use such trains even if they existed?
Not enough to justify the ungodly expense.
Americas population centers are spread across too great a distance and most public transportation systems are already on life support.
As it is, air travel is heavily subsidized.
Another boondoggle waiting to happen from the wannabe Euro crowd.
Yes, makes sense. No checking in, no security checks etc., that saves a lot of time, especially if the station is located downtown. But I assume it will be expensive at the beginning, the US would have to build much of the infrastructure from scratch.
Not enough to justify the ungodly expense.
Americas population centers are spread across too great a distance and most public transportation systems are already on life support.
As it is, air travel is heavily subsidized.
Another boondoggle waiting to happen from the wannabe Euro crowd.
Of course it would not make sense to build high-speed lines from coast to coast. But for commuting, why not? For instance a line from Washington to Boston with stops in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York
What does that have to do with Europe? Europe is not the only place building high-speed train lines. Same thing in China, Taiwan, Japan etc. What gives you the idea that something is bad just because it was first tried abroad?
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,816,224 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by allydriver
Not enough to justify the ungodly expense. Americas population centers are spread across too great a distance and most public transportation systems are already on life support.
As it is, air travel is heavily subsidized.
Another boondoggle waiting to happen from the wannabe Euro crowd.
That is only true in the middle of the country. The coast are different. They need to use a rule for rail of something like 2 million people per 100 miles. That is for each 100 miles of high speed rail, 2 million people must live within that distance. So a place like NYC which had 12 million people would be entitled to 600 miles of track. If the track went to a city of 2 million people, add another 100 miles for 700 total. So Boston - NYC- Philly - Baltimore- DC would defintely qualify. Kansas City- 2 million and St Louis- 1 million would be entitled to 150 miles of rail BUT because they are 250 miles apart, they would NOT qualify. Instead they would get more highway and road subsidies.
The proposed line from LA to Los Vegas would qualify only because of L.A.s population but I would even question that arrangement. It would be great for tourism in Las Vegas but would it do anything for California? A better plan might be L.A. to San Diego or San Fransisco.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,816,224 times
Reputation: 3587
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neuling
Of course it would not make sense to build high-speed lines from coast to coast. But for commuting, why not? For instance a line from Washington to Boston with stops in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York
What does that have to do with Europe? Europe is not the only place building high-speed train lines. Same thing in China, Taiwan, Japan etc. What gives you the idea that something is bad just because it was first tried abroad?
It is the old stupid conservative attitude- if Europe does it, it must be bad. That is why we are so retarded in so many areas including the Metric system.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,816,224 times
Reputation: 3587
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neuling
Yes, makes sense. No checking in, no security checks etc., that saves a lot of time, especially if the station is located downtown. But I assume it will be expensive at the beginning, the US would have to build much of the infrastructure from scratch.
We built most of the interstate highway system from scratch. We went to the moon from scratch. We can certainly do this! One of the ways to help pay for it is to also use it for high speed freight. Another thing is to sell ad space on the trains and have TVs with news and ads on the trains. These ads would be seen by millions of people and companies would pay for them.
This is a nice map of proposed high-speed lines in the US. Seems like there might be a HS network in the East and one in the West one day, but will they be connected? The connection between the two networks would have to be very fast, like 300mph, with few stops in between. In Germany they have the problem that the HS advantage is oftentimes lost because of very irregular tracks around hills etc., further slowed down by commuter trains sharing the same tracks and lots of stations along the way
The Chinese have an advantage. They actually build such trains and will soon have more miles of such high speed train routes than France, Japan and Germany combined. What have US companies done except PR releases?
You see China actually used their stimulus money for infrastructure.
We said we were going to but....pork got in the way.
Say we do have that spiffy renovated little airport up in the northeast.
Lots of hike and bike trails in communities and don't forget all those "stimulus at work" signs on half finished road projects.
We had our chance..we blew it. China has the advantage indeed because they used their money to make forward progress.
We had cash for clunkers, cash for appliances, cash for home buyers.
We pushed more buying instead of innovating.
Hey..this is OUR government. The majority elected them and from various polls they seem to be happy with the handouts.
Who knows what to think? It could turn out that China builds all the componets needed and we get stuck laying just the rail.Or worse who is going to run the trains the private sector or the gvt?if it is the gvt we are in trouble,AMTRAK has lost money every year of it's existence reaching into the billions.We all know that AMTRAK can not compete with the airlines price wise,will the new fast trains be able to compete?
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