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How far can you go by train in 5h?

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Re: How far can you go by train in 5h?

#62
post #45
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why this is down-voted so, but to me also outside the US it seems correct? You bill for travel between stations, there'd be a lot more track & travel between stations in the US, on average, if it were as ubiquitous. Intranational flight is a lot more common there. I imagine the economics of it are better, lower ticket price, and in many cases probably quicker too, even including airport BS.

>>Intranational flight is a lot more common there. I imagine the economics of it are better, lower ticket price, and in many cases probably quicker too, even including airport BS. That is the problem in my opinion - I prefer sitting on a train, to sitting on a plane, but for most routes I need to travel (within the US) it takes longer to get there and is more expensive than flying - why would anyone want to pay more…

Yeah, well, that's what I'm saying really.

It's going to be slower and more expensive so not so many people are going to want to do it so why build more of it.

If the major stops are closer together, 'a journey' is shorter and cheaper and beats air travel, and many more people will pay for it.

Re: How far can you go by train in 5h?

#64

I'd love to see the Eurostar on there. A colleague was stunned I could get from London to Brussels in two hours.

It is on there - highlight Brussels and it’ll show that you can reach Newcastle within five hours. That’s only possible if you go via Eurostar.

Re: How far can you go by train in 5h?

#67

As a European it boggles my mind seeing how trains are basically non-existent in the USA (just look at Houston station), given how dominant the whole "Wild West" railroad rush is in everybody's immagination. Railroads are super ubiquitous here, and we've to work with a pretty hostile terrain - Italy has lots of mountains, hills, rivers, and yet has one of the best networks in the world. Most of the USA are basically…

As a frequent traveler to Tokyo, I became a fan of mass transit.

A guaranteed way to become sad, is use the Tokyo trains, then come home to New York, and use the Metro/LIRR.

Re: How far can you go by train in 5h?

#69

As a European it boggles my mind seeing how trains are basically non-existent in the USA (just look at Houston station), given how dominant the whole "Wild West" railroad rush is in everybody's immagination. Railroads are super ubiquitous here, and we've to work with a pretty hostile terrain - Italy has lots of mountains, hills, rivers, and yet has one of the best networks in the world. Most of the USA are basically…

The fact the US is basically empty means the cost to build a HSR route to go between population centers is super high because of the sheer distances involved. You’re talking like 1000 miles, not 200. The places which are closer together, like the East Coast, do have some passenger rail but they’re also much denser, like Europe, and so they have the same kind of constraints (or worse). The US has a lot of freight rail…

I see no mention of 737’s and A320’s here or in most posts. Compare the price per mile with those of alternatives. The U.S. doesn’t even resemble Europe.

Re: How far can you go by train in 5h?

#70

I delight in isochrone maps[0]! There used to be some open source, web interfaces but they all became commercial. An isochrone map is one of the best tools for weekend get-aways, job hunting, and finding a home location. OpenStreetMap[1]! Add it to your site, it will be great hit, in my opinion. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isochrone_map [1] https://www.openstreetmap.org

I ran a home search startup in 2015 and I will always remember the moment my searching finally came up with the name "isochrone" and the explosion of research and data that came with that. Our home search went from "we'll send you an email when its done" to adding fake loading bars to make it seem like it was doing more.
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