41–50 of 139 posts
Not sure if this is relevant or not, but the SpaceX "Starbase" is in deep south Texas, and so is the cross border region. I suspect that a comprehensive analysis would probably include the interface between the "Triangle" and the border region.
That's as far away as "Nawlins" from the triangle, so I don't see why it's relevant.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rephrased, Texans think the rights of private land owners matter more than the latest politician’s talking points. The people downvoting this have clearly never had government agents steal anything from them. Or believe that when they do, it’s always “for the greater good”.
I mean, China has 45,000 kilometers of HSR and the US has zero. So I'm not saying that taking people's houses to build public infrastructure is always the right thing to do, but there's a case to be made for a more balanced view than just "never". (Also China is a huge, spread out place just like the US, so miss me with those arguments about that being the reason passenger rail doesn't work here.)
They really just need to wait until the older owners start to die off where their kids would rather have a check than the land. It might take a few more generations though. Generational land ownership is a helluva drug
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A plan to connect Houston to Dallas with a bullet train has been grinding its way along for years now[0]. Since Texas is loath to use eminent domain, the planning phase has been stalled for a loooong time. [0]: https://www.texascentral.com/project/ Edit: Whoops, wrong project. Still, the plans are there, we just need willing politicians.
Rephrased, Texans think the rights of private land owners matter more than the latest politician’s talking points. The people downvoting this have clearly never had government agents steal anything from them. Or believe that when they do, it’s always “for the greater good”.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rephrased, Texans think the rights of private land owners matter more than the latest politician’s talking points. The people downvoting this have clearly never had government agents steal anything from them. Or believe that when they do, it’s always “for the greater good”.
It's interesting that the government can't convince owners to sell. I mean - we're talking about politicians. They manage to negotiate everything and compromise even in the middle of wars. See prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine right now. Or Israel and Hamas. Worst enemies and they can still find a compromise. It can't be just about money - governments successfully negotiate with unions that hold the whole…
Now imagine that you had to negotiate with 10,000 homeowners. At least one of them is going to insist that their place is worth one billion dollars and count on you caving because they can hold up the entire project.
That's why forced confiscation - because people try to hold the project hostage for ransom.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is definitely not true. Europes high speed trains are far far faster than driving. For example, Rome to Milan via italo is 3h - 3h 40min while driving is 6h. Even the "normal high speed" train is only ~5h. Similarly Marseille to Paris is only 3.5h by train while driving is almost 8h. It entirely depends on your source and destination. Between major economic hubs train is usually faster than driving, and as you c…
The OP said “unless you have exceptionally fast rail” and was talking door to door. When you add in getting to the station, waiting on a train to arrive, and getting from the station to your destination, the average speed of the train does need to be a good deal faster.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
LA/OxnardVentura/SanDiego is an easy train. As is Portland/Seattle.
Does the Portland/Seattle train get priority over freight?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rephrased, Texans think the rights of private land owners matter more than the latest politician’s talking points. The people downvoting this have clearly never had government agents steal anything from them. Or believe that when they do, it’s always “for the greater good”.
It's interesting that the government can't convince owners to sell. I mean - we're talking about politicians. They manage to negotiate everything and compromise even in the middle of wars. See prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine right now. Or Israel and Hamas. Worst enemies and they can still find a compromise. It can't be just about money - governments successfully negotiate with unions that hold the whole…
When there are potentially tens of thousands of property owners along that path, each property owner can derail the whole thing or add enormous costs, so they have an insanely strong negotiating position. If you were just to attempt to negotiate with each property owner, the cost would make building new rail in a populated area impossible.
There has never been any real length of railroad built through a populated area with many landowners without some kind of government intervention akin to eminent domain.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rephrased, Texans think the rights of private land owners matter more than the latest politician’s talking points. The people downvoting this have clearly never had government agents steal anything from them. Or believe that when they do, it’s always “for the greater good”.
It's interesting that the government can't convince owners to sell. I mean - we're talking about politicians. They manage to negotiate everything and compromise even in the middle of wars. See prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine right now. Or Israel and Hamas. Worst enemies and they can still find a compromise. It can't be just about money - governments successfully negotiate with unions that hold the whole…
So the government is in a position of "we'll give you X for this, but if you don't agree we'll just take it from you", which is a... non-Texan position for government to be in, to say the least.
As someone who recently moved to the Texas triangle, I’m baffled by the lack of good transportation options between the three cities. It’s a 3-4 hour drive and while there is a train, freight gets priority. So the train takes anywhere from 3-7 hours. You can fly but with security any sort of delay and it would faster to drive.
That triangle is why Southwest Airlines exists. I think the original brainstorming napkin drawing of the triangle routes is on display at Dallas Lovefield airport.
Megaregions is nothing new but lately seem to be a testing the waters for an independent Texas state. I feel like articles like this is mentally preparing the American public for a potential secession states forming post-election.
Texas is not going to secede. In the 2020 election, the vote was 52:46 between Trump and Biden, meaning almost half the state supported the overall national winner. Compare this to the actual secession crisis election in 1860, where the vote was 75:24 against the pro-Union candidate, with Lincoln not even on the ballot in the state.