291–300 of 503 posts
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Cities are dense, unlike American ones
I'm not aware of any city-local maglev trains. American cities are still spread out from one-another.
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> high speed rail is romanticism from bygone days when rail was the only alternative to long distance travel Yes, the 'bygone days' of maglev trains. I don't know if you've ever travelled in Japan or China but the convenience and comfort of high speed rail easily surpasses flying. And in many cases, so does the speed. In most normal countries, rail is critical transport infrastructure. It's not a conspiracy.
yep - once u factor in the TSA body shakedown and traffic to airport, then it about evens out air travel.
That's a problem that will be replicated exactly for boarding a train destined to travel at 278m/s.
The consequences for a major security failure on a high speed train are, if anything, more dire than those for even a very large passenger aircraft. An 800,000kg barely-subsonic chain of rigid torpedoes barreling through dense population centres is serious business.
So, as someone that lived in New York for 6 years and California for 6 years, stories like this are incredibly depressing. The US is the world's largest economy and should be the shining example of amazing infrastructure, high-tech, green cities, and forward thinking policies. California is an especially egregious example in terms of infrastructure investment: If California was a country it would be the world's fifth…
The simple truth is, transportation projects are not created to solve problems but instead of pay off political affiliates, be they donors, family members, political parties, or the unions. Democrats have no more interest in high speed rail or energy independence than Republicans and for the same reason. Oh they will pay lip service saying otherwise but you can see the results of all those years they have made their…
Presumably that's even truer in China (where 'Party' is capitalized), but at least they're getting a high-speed rail out of the deal.
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Rail yes, highspeed rail maybe not. Whether china has the market and will to sustain widespread 1000kph rail is untested.
6h vs 18h for a trip are two different universes. Sleeper trains are cool and all but a shorter ride is better.
So, as someone that lived in New York for 6 years and California for 6 years, stories like this are incredibly depressing. The US is the world's largest economy and should be the shining example of amazing infrastructure, high-tech, green cities, and forward thinking policies. California is an especially egregious example in terms of infrastructure investment: If California was a country it would be the world's fifth…
The simple truth is, transportation projects are not created to solve problems but instead of pay off political affiliates, be they donors, family members, political parties, or the unions. Democrats have no more interest in high speed rail or energy independence than Republicans and for the same reason. Oh they will pay lip service saying otherwise but you can see the results of all those years they have made their…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
yep - once u factor in the TSA body shakedown and traffic to airport, then it about evens out air travel.
> yep - once u factor in the TSA body shakedown and traffic to airport, then it about evens out air travel. That's a problem that will be replicated exactly for boarding a train destined to travel at 278m/s. The consequences for a major security failure on a high speed train are, if anything, more dire than those for even a very large passenger aircraft. An 800,000kg barely-subsonic chain of rigid torpedoes barreling…
So, as someone that lived in New York for 6 years and California for 6 years, stories like this are incredibly depressing. The US is the world's largest economy and should be the shining example of amazing infrastructure, high-tech, green cities, and forward thinking policies. California is an especially egregious example in terms of infrastructure investment: If California was a country it would be the world's fifth…
I agree with your sentiments overall, so don't take my "it's not all gloom and doom" comment as a disagreement... But there are people out there trying! The project from Texas Central Railways is looking like a sooner bet than California's line, for a number of reasons. An example of a reason is lower price, stemming from geography. The route doesn't require building tunnels through mountains and the like. Although e…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The simple truth is, transportation projects are not created to solve problems but instead of pay off political affiliates, be they donors, family members, political parties, or the unions. Democrats have no more interest in high speed rail or energy independence than Republicans and for the same reason. Oh they will pay lip service saying otherwise but you can see the results of all those years they have made their…
> high speed rail is romanticism from bygone days when rail was the only alternative to long distance travel Yes, the 'bygone days' of maglev trains. I don't know if you've ever travelled in Japan or China but the convenience and comfort of high speed rail easily surpasses flying. And in many cases, so does the speed. In most normal countries, rail is critical transport infrastructure. It's not a conspiracy.
Uh, we are? I don't know of any successful maglev projects ongoing in the United States.
And this is awful. Planes pollute so much [1] and the experience of flying is awful.
[1] https://www.dw.com/en/trains-vs-planes-whats-the-real-cost-o...
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You can gauge the insincerity of the project by the mendacity of the title. There is an area of Texas known universally as "Central Texas". The "Texas Central" project goes nowhere near it. It's a rail line from Houston to Dallas. It's not going to happen, unless the legislature goes full bore socialize-the-losses and subsidizes it.
that seems very unlikely to happen in texas, right? socialized public transit doesnt seem like a distinctly texan thing to do.
It will also take support of several powerful people within the leg (the speaker, and Lt. Governor), as well as the Governor to get the eminent domain condemnations done without interference.
But land developers get local governments (most often), and sometimes the Texas government to use public funds to build roads to increase the value of land to be "developed" all the time. It's the main way that new roads get built around here. Then they use a "private utility district" (authorized by the friendly leg.) with taxing authority to fund the installation of streets and sewer, etc. and voila, now they can make billions selling houses. All without risking a dime. It's a nice gig using tax dollars to funnel money to millionaires, if you've got the right friends.