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High-speed rail taking shape even as opponents seek to kill it

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Re: High-speed rail taking shape even as opponents seek to kill it

#121

Post by privong »

privong wrote: post #39
sand500 wrote: post #38

As I see it, the price of rail tickets will be pretty high.whats stopping the price of flights from being halved in the next couple of decades and killing this train service too?

> whats stopping the price of flights from being halved in the next couple of decades and killing this train service too? The construction of the high-speed rail system is/will be heavily subsidized by the government. So presumably, the government will have a vested interest in keeping the train service running and will subsidize operating costs if airlines cut prices in that manner.

Folks down-voting: I know "subsidized by the government" == "subsidized by the taxpayers". My phrasing wasn't intended as a judgment on the merits of such action, just as a possible scenario in response to the GP's question.

Re: High-speed rail taking shape even as opponents seek to kill it

#122

Post by chiph »

nimish wrote: post #15
jimrandomh wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are also much, much cheaper per mile. Something is wrong with construction in the US that makes rail lines dramatically more expensive here.

Its a hell of a lot easier to fly over the dozens or hundreds of different landowners and jurisdictions than it is to convince each of them to allow you to build a giant railroad through them The us rail infra was built when this wasn't an issue or could be solved by sending some heavies in or bribing the right people.

Texas Central is about 1/3 of the way through right of way acquisition on their Houston to Dallas route.

http://www.texascentral.com/alignment-maps/

They're partnering with Japan National Railways and planning on running the N700-I Bullet total system (the international version of the Tokaido Shinkansen).

Re: High-speed rail taking shape even as opponents seek to kill it

#123

Post by avn2109 »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #116
helthanatos wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High speed trains are much better than flights for small commutes, after the expenses are payed, it will be cheaper, it's easier to get on a train than wait hours for flights to take off. High speed rails are the future; flights are the past. Why would you not want to see this work out? Flying is quite annoying because it has constant delays, TSA, and hours of waiting in between.

You really think the TSA isn't going to want a piece of this?

The TSA's primary mandate is just to socialize legal liability for terrorist attacks away from the airlines.

Their secondary mandate is crony capitalism.

Their tertiary mandate is to acclimatize the population to the trappings of the unconstitutional American police state.

Only the latter would be substantially aided by encroachment onto rail, so I'm not too worried about it for now.

Re: High-speed rail taking shape even as opponents seek to kill it

#124

Post by ghaff »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #116
helthanatos wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High speed trains are much better than flights for small commutes, after the expenses are payed, it will be cheaper, it's easier to get on a train than wait hours for flights to take off. High speed rails are the future; flights are the past. Why would you not want to see this work out? Flying is quite annoying because it has constant delays, TSA, and hours of waiting in between.

You really think the TSA isn't going to want a piece of this?

Leaving aside excessive and largely ineffective security screening for flights in the US (and pretty much everywhere else), a lot of European high speed trains absolutely have metal detectors, luggage inspection, and document inspection. As do many buildings.

It doesn't take long to go through most of the time but then going through Pre-Check probably averages me 10 minutes. But I do leave a good buffer.

It's probably a bad idea to predicate travel time estimates on arriving at the train 3 minutes before it leaves and getting on.

Re: High-speed rail taking shape even as opponents seek to kill it

#125

Post by [deleted] »

datahack wrote: post #106

If I had known that they were going to run this through the Central Valley instead of down the coast where it belongs I never would have voted for it. It should have gone straight from la to Oakland or emeryville, turned and gone straight to Sacramento. Instead we have a convoluted mess of rail connections that take people places they don't even want to go (no offense to Bakersfield buts it's hardly a holiday destina…

[deleted]

Re: High-speed rail taking shape even as opponents seek to kill it

#126

Post by dc_gregory »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #109
DrScump wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where right-of-way is shared with freight, freight has priority.

That seems rather backwards. Passengers are the more time-sensitive cargo than freight.

Presumption would be it's much harder to stop/start a freight train vs. a passenger train.

Re: High-speed rail taking shape even as opponents seek to kill it

#127

Post by shiny »

datahack wrote: post #106

If I had known that they were going to run this through the Central Valley instead of down the coast where it belongs I never would have voted for it. It should have gone straight from la to Oakland or emeryville, turned and gone straight to Sacramento. Instead we have a convoluted mess of rail connections that take people places they don't even want to go (no offense to Bakersfield buts it's hardly a holiday destina…

Another potential concern is that it runs through some good farmland, which CA has some of the best of in the world.

I would love to have an HSR along the coast however. When I was in Taiwan it was amazing being able to get to the bottom of the island in a couple hours.

Re: High-speed rail taking shape even as opponents seek to kill it

#128

Post by detaro »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #109
DrScump wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where right-of-way is shared with freight, freight has priority.

That seems rather backwards. Passengers are the more time-sensitive cargo than freight.

Not to the freight line companies owning the networks (Apparently there is a law saying that Amtrack has priority, but enforcing it has as of now just lead to years of lawsuits, without useful results)

Re: High-speed rail taking shape even as opponents seek to kill it

#129

Post by sib »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #109
DrScump wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where right-of-way is shared with freight, freight has priority.

That seems rather backwards. Passengers are the more time-sensitive cargo than freight.

Agreed. Except that it's the freight railways that generally own the trackage in most (all?) places where it's shared with Amtrak. And the freight railways generate significantly more revenue from that trackage (about $75B annually vs $3B).

Re: High-speed rail taking shape even as opponents seek to kill it

#130

Post by ghaff »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #109
DrScump wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where right-of-way is shared with freight, freight has priority.

That seems rather backwards. Passengers are the more time-sensitive cargo than freight.

There's also the small detail that it's the freight companies that actually own the tracks in most cases so they make the rules.
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