Ah yes, billions more in spending that we can't afford. Keep emitting debt, US government, and keep generating more inflation while you're at it. Insanity.
President Biden Announces Billions to Deliver World-Class High-Speed Rail
21–30 of 61 posts
Re: President Biden Announces Billions to Deliver World-Class High-Speed Rail
#22I wish the map were higher definition. I see a line from San Antonio (or Austin?) to El Paso, my most traveled route, but nothing in the text description about it. There are also some other lines linking the Texas Triangle which would be great! Regardless, I hope this plan sees fruition in a reasonable timeframe. Further investments in transit within cities themselves would be welcome too, given a lot of folks may be…
Last page here: https://railroads.dot.gov/sites/fra.dot.gov/files/2023-12/FY...
Re: President Biden Announces Billions to Deliver World-Class High-Speed Rail
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
US Freight Rail is among the most utilized and most efficient in the world. Freight Rail is actually the reason why our passenger rail sucks so much, because in USA, Freight has priority over passengers. So a lot of our passenger rails sit waiting for the freight-trains to pass.
> Freight Rail is actually the reason why our passenger rail sucks so much, because in USA, Freight has priority over passengers. So a lot of our passenger rails sit waiting for the freight-trains to pass. Do you have any sources for this? This doesn't sound correct to me. A train is a queue, there is no priority in regards to crossings that I know of. Edit: I stand corrected, Amtrak report does suggest that freight…
Freight doesn’t have priority, passenger trains have priority according to the law but the law is functionally unenforceable so freight steals priority from passengers.
Re: President Biden Announces Billions to Deliver World-Class High-Speed Rail
#24I've tried to figure out the logisitics of having Caltrain and Cal HSR sharing two tracks in the SF Bay Peninsula corridor and I simply can't figure it out. There's no way you can get the Cal HSR at speed through the corridor with bidirectional Caltrain non-high-speed traffic, and there's no room to build more track. So the HSR would have to slow down to Caltrain speeds or they would have to modify the Caltrain sched…
What I anticipate is that it will require a transfer in Diridon, which is suboptimal but it's also unrealistic to think of HSR going directly to SF (seriously, what route would be conceivable that could support actual high speed rail?). However, Caltrain just issued this press release today, which indicates that one of the results of electrification is going to be an ability to run more trains and increase the speed of SFSJ bullets to accommodate 30min end-to-end travel time. If it's a 2hr30min HSR ride from LA to Diridon, then a transfer to 30min Caltrain to SF, that sounds more than acceptable, and still far faster and more convenient than flying LAXSFO.
https://www.caltrain.com/news/caltrain-announces-exciting-ne...
Re: President Biden Announces Billions to Deliver World-Class High-Speed Rail
#25Pleasantly surprised by this. Finally some real investment in high speed rail. The LA to Las Vegas high speed line seems like an obvious mistake, though. Definitely excited about the northeast corridor improvements. They say the Downeaster line is going to be improved, but no details. I wish the Downeaster went further up the coast of Maine. edit: Looks like the Downeaster could get extended to Rockland. Neat! https:…
> The LA to Las Vegas high speed line seems like an obvious mistake, though I'm curious as to why you think this? LA Vegas on I15 gets supremely busy during the weekends. I dunno how much regular commuter traffic there would be during weekdays, but it seems like it would see high demand, especially if its a) faster than driving and b) you can drink on the train. My main issue with it is that it doesn't actually get v…
If they put slot machines in the cars, or dedicated casino car(s), they could pay for themselves!
Re: President Biden Announces Billions to Deliver World-Class High-Speed Rail
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is the other way around. Passenger rail has priority but that law is ignored by freight operators. “For over 50 years, freight railroads have been required by law to provide Amtrak with “preference” to run passenger trains ahead of freight trains. However, many freight railroads ignore the law because it is extremely difficult for Amtrak to enforce it, and as a result, people and the American economy suffer.” http…
Oh wow. That's incredible. So legally Passenger Rail has priority, but in practice the freight-corporations bully the passenger lines. Its a difficult situation, because nominally, the freight-rail operators also own those raillines. So a free-market solution is likely not possible. This is just something that needs to be enforced from the top-down.
A free market solution was never feasible as there are just too many parties and externalities involved. This was always going to be a situation where some type of monopoly would happen at various levels which would likely require some type of regulatory intervention to achieve a Pareto-optimal situation.
There are likely solution to the issue that are not top-down, but this isn’t a situation where free market forces will provide the socially optimal outcome.
Re: President Biden Announces Billions to Deliver World-Class High-Speed Rail
#27220mph == high speed in this case
Re: President Biden Announces Billions to Deliver World-Class High-Speed Rail
#28Ah yes, billions more in spending that we can't afford. Keep emitting debt, US government, and keep generating more inflation while you're at it. Insanity.
Can’t afford? The US is insanely wealthy, it can easily afford this if it wanted to. The issue is around the politics of taxing and spending, not about the affordability of it.
Re: President Biden Announces Billions to Deliver World-Class High-Speed Rail
#29So, wouldn't dedicated high speed lanes by autonomous vehicles be more flexible?
They are talking 220mph here. I would think autonomous electric vehicles could do this too.
Although, possibly rail might be safer because you can build fences to keep animals out.
Maybe a mixture of both in the future?
Re: President Biden Announces Billions to Deliver World-Class High-Speed Rail
#30So, wouldn't dedicated high speed lanes by autonomous vehicles be more flexible? They are talking 220mph here. I would think autonomous electric vehicles could do this too. Although, possibly rail might be safer because you can build fences to keep animals out. Maybe a mixture of both in the future?
What autonomous vehicles?