JMS Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Flying is a much bigger pain in the ass, and I doubt that will change anytime soon. Flying is getting to be a much bigger pain in the butt too every year. Jez remember after 911 and Bush gave the airline industry 15 Billion dollars to stay afloat? http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24684 And folks are proposing airplanes as free market? It boggles my mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 BTW, Pencil me in as one of the people who thinks that the place to implement high speed rail is the northeast. To me, the perfect place for high speed rail is some place where the cities are too far apart to be a convenient drive, where the traffic sucks, but someplace where air travel isn't much faster than a train, and where the air space and facilities are overcrowded, aging, and a pain to use. Preferably some place where there's a lot of people traveling between the cities, too. If that description doesn't say "northeast USA", then I don't know what does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopper Dave Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 BTW, Pencil me in as one of the people who thinks that the place to implement high speed rail is the northeast. To me, the perfect place for high speed rail is some place where the cities are too far apart to be a convenient drive, where the traffic sucks, but someplace where air travel isn't much faster than a train, and where the air space and facilities are overcrowded, aging, and a pain to use. Preferably some place where there's a lot of people traveling between the cities, too. If that description doesn't say "northeast USA", then I don't know what does. This is all true, but you of all people should know how goddamned boring the FL turnpike is. At least if I'm on a train I can read or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 BTW, Pencil me in as one of the people who thinks that the place to implement high speed rail is the northeast. To me, the perfect place for high speed rail is some place where the cities are too far apart to be a convenient drive, where the traffic sucks, but someplace where air travel isn't much faster than a train, and where the air space and facilities are overcrowded, aging, and a pain to use. Preferably some place where there's a lot of people traveling between the cities, too. If that description doesn't say "northeast USA", then I don't know what does. I agree. This would be great to connect Boston to NY. NY to Philly. Philly to Balitmore. And Baltimore to DC. So that you could go from Boston to DC in like 2 or 3 hours. That would be sweet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMS Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 BTW, Pencil me in as one of the people who thinks that the place to implement high speed rail is the northeast. I'm sure we are going to be one of the 13 projects.... But you have to be pretty excited about Florida being the first to get going... Looking pretty cool!! Hope the train they pick is a fast one, not a souped up Amtrak train we've been calling high speed in order to convince ourselves our infrastructure doesn't suck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMS Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 I agree. This would be great to connect Boston to NY. NY to Philly. Philly to Balitmore. And Baltimore to DC. So that you could go from Boston to DC in like 2 or 3 hours. That would be sweet. Needs to go to Richmond and Atlanta too.... That's the entire eastern cooridor.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Needs to go to Richmond and Atlanta too.... That's the entire eastern cooridor.... Good point, I forgot those two. Might as well connect it to Florida too and just have it able to go up and down the whole east coast. That would be money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 I'm sure we are going to be one of the 13 projects.... But you have to be pretty excited about Florida being the first to get going... Looking pretty cool!! Hope the train they pick is a fast one, not a souped up Amtrak train we've been calling high speed in order to convince ourselves our infrastructure doesn't suck. http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/28/high.speed.trains/index.html?iref=allsearch Train corridors in the program include: • San Diego - Los Angeles - San Luis Obispo in California • Oakland - Sacramento in California • Portland - Eugene in Oregon • Seattle - Portland in Washington and Oregon • Chicago - St. Louis in Illinois and Missouri • St. Louis and Kansas City in Missouri • Minneapolis/St. Paul - Madison in Minnesota and Wisconsin • Madison - Milwaukee in Wisconsin • Milwaukee - Chicago in Wisconsin and Illinois • Cleveland - Columbus - Cincinnati in Ohio • Detroit/Pontiac - Chicago in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois • Tampa - Orlando in Florida • Raleigh - Charlotte in North Carolina • Washington - Richmond in District of Columbia and Virginia • Raleigh - Richmond in North Carolina and Virginia • New York - Albany-Buffalo in New York • New York - Montreal in New York and Quebec, Canada. • Boston - New York - Washington in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, New York, and District of Columbia • Brunswick - Portland in Maine • Philadelphia - Harrisburg - Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania • Springfield - East Northfield in Massachusetts • New Haven - Springfield in Connecticut and Massachusetts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopper Dave Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Good point, I forgot those two. Might as well connect it to Florida too and just have it able to go up and down the whole east coast. That would be money. It sounds good in theory, but you'd probably end up with large expanses of track that don't pay for themselves, and therefore are not viable options. I'd love it in Florida, though I probably wouldn't use it that often unless it's an autotrain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 It sounds good in theory, but you'd probably end up with large expanses of track that don't pay for themselves, and therefore are not viable options. I'd love it in Florida, though I probably wouldn't use it that often unless it's an autotrain. Maybe you could build up towns around the tracks so it could help promote businesses? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopper Dave Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Maybe you could build up towns around the tracks so it could help promote businesses? It's great in theory, but the projects will never get off the ground if they're not financially viable from the get go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renegade7 Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 This makes too much sense. There must be some kind of mistake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 This makes too much sense. There must be some kind of mistake. That's how I was hoping it would look. That looks like a great idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMS Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 It sounds good in theory, but you'd probably end up with large expanses of track that don't pay for themselves, and therefore are not viable options. I'd love it in Florida, though I probably wouldn't use it that often unless it's an autotrain. So it's going to Boston NY-DC.... then DC-Richmond.. This is just the beginning... Look at Florida's plans... their going to ring the entire state.... I think we'll get transatlantic and down to Atlanta too... I heard the DC/Richmond train was planned to be an auto train.... they want to use it to help relieve trafic on 95, just like they will in Florida on 70, 95 and allagator Alley down to Maimi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMS Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 This makes too much sense. There must be some kind of mistake. Why are we building our High Speed rail system in Canada to Montrial? Are we thinking Quebec is going to suceeed and try to join their cajun brothers as a 59th state? Were are the mexican stations? Just kidding... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoodBits Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Hopefully they would decide to add something from Louisville to Richmond following I-64. Seems there is a big gap there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjah Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 This makes too much sense. There must be some kind of mistake. The image isn't wide enough to fit all the zeroes in the price tag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMS Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Hopefully they would decide to add something from Louisville to Richmond following I-64. Seems there is a big gap there. Nah... hopefully they are going to change the route cause right now they have the boston to portland leg going over water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMS Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 The image isn't wide enough to fit all the zeroes in the price tag. What do we care... the chinese are paying for it.:cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panel Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Well if anything this proves you can not count on private industry to help things, they need pay offs to do anything, so the government should just run it themselves. Amtrak is government owned, they are the ones that are failing. They are getting beat by Greyhound, a privately owned bus company, that is sad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMS Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Amtrak is government owned, they are the ones that are failing. They are getting beat by Greyhound, a privately owned bus company, that is sad. The US rail system is geared towards carrying freight not passengers. It hasn't had a major upgrade in decades. if we gave Amtrack 15 billion in 2001, like Bush did for the airline industry; they likely would be doing a lot better. Our Airlines who are about to request another 15 billion and are on the verge of blinking out of existance can't really claim to be kicking anybody's butt today can they? The best most sucessful airline today is South West. They aren't even an airline. They're a very sucessful gas arbatroge company.... seriously they make their money on gasoline futures and that makes their airline profitable. if When gasoline prices go back up to 120-150$ a barrel, you can pretty much stick a fork in busses and airlines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panel Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Moreover, with trains, you won't have to arrive 90 minutes early to go through checkin and security. you will after one terrorist ever does anything to a train. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twa Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Well, the track is vulnerable. But making passengers empty their toothpaste tubes won't change that. I suspect that the odds of anybody hijacking one and running it into a building are . . . remote. Tru dat....not that that helps the passengers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMS Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 you will after one terrorist ever does anything to a train. What part of 10,000 times more efficient than airplanes aren't you understanding? You can move 1 ton of good 435 miles for a gallons worth of gas. How can anyone preport to want to have a national energy plan and be against investing in rail? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilsonian Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 How about the price of gasoline, how come that doesn't go down every year? And you don't want to get into a discussion about Postal Service vs. FedEx or UPS because the US postal service kicks the crap out of either of them. And it doesn't cost the taxpayer a penny, all of their revenue comes from their business. I realize criticizing the Postal service is in style for libertarian Republicans but frankly you don't have a leg to stand on. This discussion is simplistic to the point of meaninglessness. I don't think there is anything wrong with the free market but it isn't the euphorian solution to everything libertarians think it is. Some things are inherently Governmental. The price of gasoline goes up in dollars because of the perpetual inflation the Federal Reserve creates. Since 1913, the dollar has lost more than 96% of its value. Since the dollar's purchasing power continually erodes, prices in dollars go up. The fact that the prices of televisions, computers, and cell-phones fall in spite of all this inflation is a testament to productivity and economies of scale. If you price gasoline in terms of gold, the price has remained flat. As for the Postal Service, it is an inefficient government monopoly, which only exists because the law protects it from real competition. The July 2009 Government Accountability Office report states that the "GAO is adding the US Postal Service's (USPS) financial condition to the list of high-risk areas needing attention by Congress and the executive branch to achieve broad-based transformation." John Stossel has some good information regarding the subsidization of the Postal Service: http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2009/08/01/the-post-office-is-subsidized/ "Not paying parking tickets and monopoly powers are certainly a form of subsidy. In addition, The Post Office doesn't have to pay state or local taxes, and it gets to borrow billions from the government at reduced rates ($10.2 billion, by the end of this year, according to the GAO.) Last year, the FTC found that the Post Office received implicit subsidies of $34 to $117 million -- and that's not counting the monopoly, its biggest benefit." "In mail categories where competition is allowed, the US Postal Service has just a 16% market share - behind UPS and FedEX, according to the FTC report linked to above." I know you'd like to turn this into a Democrat vs. Republican debate, but I'm neither, so we'll leave it at that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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