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High-speed trains are finally coming to the US

jdog21 said:
A train from Los Angeles to San Francisco cost twice as much as a border wall.
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Plus, it's not funded by taxpayer dollars and is a thousand times more useful.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
I've advocated placing commuter rail lines within interstate highway medians - nothing is a better ad for mass transit than seeing folks kicked back in railway cars, reading the morning news, zipping by commuters stuck in creeping traffic jams.
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Nice visuals.

Just one problem: How does the train in the media get around a freeway overpass?
You know.
The ones with the big concrete pillars in the middle of . . . the freeway median?
 
eohrnberger said:
Nice visuals.

Just one problem: How does the train in the media get around a freeway overpass?
You know.
The ones with the big concrete pillars in the middle of . . . the freeway median?
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Bridges.
 
EnigmaO01 said:
The governments in Europe also subsidize the systems don't they?
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They subsidize everything but population density (Europe is many times the US except, as someone mentioned, the NE Corridor) makes public transportation feasible.

The problem with the NE Corridor is that long tracts do not have the necessary pop density and they thereby would be subsidized by the high density areas.
 
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Maccabee said:
Bridges.
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So the train would have to go over the freeway overpass on a bridge that's higher than the freeway overpass?
That sounds like a really expensive solution, as well as serious design challenge, to me.

I wonder how feasible it would be to build the freeway overpass pillars to span what the train would need to run at ground level?
 
How many millions in tax dollars are going to get pissed away on this?
 
apdst said:
How many millions in tax dollars are going to get pissed away on this?
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They claim almost none but by the time it is all done expect many hundreds of millions at the least.

Americans are colossal liars now.


EDIT: Already $221 million public money has been spent to build the train station in Orlando..... which seems like a lot till you recall that San Francisco just got done spending almost $3 billion on what is intended to be a train station for HSR and Cal Trans but is once they fix it and reopen currently just a bus station, and well might only ever be a bus station/park.

This is America now.



https://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/news/os-airport-train-station-uncertain-20170423-story.html
 
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JacksinPA said:
The Metro does not go up to Georgetown either. I heard the locals fought it & now they're out of luck.
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Let us hope the locals win this battle in California - a boondoggle that may reach 100B before its done and deliver the slowest "high speed" train ever.
 
PeteEU said:
High speed rail works if done right. Linking downtowns of major cities together..cities that are at most 800 or so km away from each other.

High speed rail replaces airplanes between said cities.

Case in point. Travelling from Malaga in southern Spain to Madrid. 530 km. When high speed rail came, 90+% of air travel disappeared. Why?

Time. Airplane takes 1 hour and 30 min, but you need 60 to 120+ minutes in each end to get from downtown to the airport and through security. Train takes 2 hours 30 minutes and takes you to the heart of both cities.

So where could high speed rail be good in the US? New York to Boston, Washington Dc and such. LA to Vegas. Orlando to Atlanta. All these are some of the busiest air routes in the US and are all under 600 km in distance. There are many more high passenger traffic links in the US where it would work.

Will it happen? Nope the political system is too corrupt and the airlines would protest big time. Add to that, the American car fetish and big oil lobbyist and such...not a chance in hell for it to get off ground. Also it is the lack of vision of the future in America that basically died with Kennedy.

Sent from my Honor 8X using Tapatalk
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Nonsense. The same investment in additional airports and modern expressways would likely have been faster and cheaper.
 
JacksinPA said:
High-speed trains in America? Virgin Trains USA on track to make it so | CNN Travel

(CNN) — Japan has its famed Shinkasens, Russia its Maglevs, France its TGVs.

But what about the United States?

One train company has high hopes of bringing high-speed rail travel to America. Brightline Trains, which bills itself as "America's first new major private intercity passenger railroad in over a century," has just gotten a major vote of confidence from Richard Branson's Virgin Group.
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To be branded Virgin Trains USA, they will initially link Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
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So long as they do not expect taxpayer subsidies, I am all for this. I wish Virgin Group and Brightline all the success in the world.
 
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Its does by lowering the amount of money the tax payers have to pay down the road for welfare for these immigrants
 
JacksinPA said:
High-speed trains in America? Virgin Trains USA on track to make it so | CNN Travel

(CNN) — Japan has its famed Shinkasens, Russia its Maglevs, France its TGVs.

But what about the United States?

One train company has high hopes of bringing high-speed rail travel to America. Brightline Trains, which bills itself as "America's first new major private intercity passenger railroad in over a century," has just gotten a major vote of confidence from Richard Branson's Virgin Group.
========================================
To be branded Virgin Trains USA, they will initially link Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
Click to expand...

As our population ages and as plane travel gets more expensive, high speed trains between major cities makes sense. This is especially true when you look at the cost of not only building, but maintaining highways. We have two seasons in Wisconsin, Winter and road construction. And our roads under the GOP over the past eight years have been allowed to become worse as they have cut income taxes, refused to increase gas taxes and had to borrow even the money we are using to keep up roads and bridges. High speed trains between our major cities and the ones in Illinois and Minnesota would have made sense, but the GOP governor, Walker, turned down the 810 million dollars the Feds were to give us to build it.
 
JacksinPA said:
High-speed trains in America? Virgin Trains USA on track to make it so | CNN Travel

(CNN) — Japan has its famed Shinkasens, Russia its Maglevs, France its TGVs.

But what about the United States?

One train company has high hopes of bringing high-speed rail travel to America. Brightline Trains, which bills itself as "America's first new major private intercity passenger railroad in over a century," has just gotten a major vote of confidence from Richard Branson's Virgin Group.
========================================
To be branded Virgin Trains USA, they will initially link Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
Click to expand...

The ****? It's an hour from Miami to W Palm. They won't even get started before they have to stop.
 
ecofarm said:
Only one thing really matters: population density. That's the great disparity between the US and Europe and the reason mass transit is not popular here. At some threshold, passenger trains become economically viable.
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When the day comes when you can talk Americans out of going to the driveway, getting in their cars and driving to work ALONE in the main, I will be long in my grave. Even the car pool fad died quickly here.
 
independentusa said:
As our population ages and as plane travel gets more expensive, high speed trains between major cities makes sense. This is especially true when you look at the cost of not only building, but maintaining highways. We have two seasons in Wisconsin, Winter and road construction. And our roads under the GOP over the past eight years have been allowed to become worse as they have cut income taxes, refused to increase gas taxes and had to borrow even the money we are using to keep up roads and bridges. High speed trains between our major cities and the ones in Illinois and Minnesota would have made sense, but the GOP governor, Walker, turned down the 810 million dollars the Feds were to give us to build it.
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Funny thing is that when California High Speed Rail was being proposed the fare schedule was about the same as airlines.
 
I've been on high speed trains in China...285mph.....Moves like a bullet...Hard to believe America 2019 would be capable of the same, too much division,Nimby,lawsuits etc....
 
The only place where not owning a car really has always been OK in this country at least from my experience is Manhattan Island....and then there is Manhattan Island....and then there is ....well....Manhattan Island. I just can't think of another example in this country that is anywhere near to that. Remarkably, it has been that way for a long time.
 
Bullseye said:
Funny thing is that when California High Speed Rail was being proposed the fare schedule was about the same as airlines.
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California hopes to get the line between Fresno and San Jose open...Still you have too many angry Right Wingers against funding it...Too many urbanites that don't want it near them, nobody wants to pay taxes for it...Lawsuits galore....America is no longer capable of these big projects
 
jnug said:
The only place where not owning a car really has always been OK in this country at least from my experience is Manhattan Island....and then there is Manhattan Island....and then there is ....well....Manhattan Island. I just can't think of another example in this country that is anywhere near to that. Remarkably, it has been that way for a long time.
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China will soon High speed MagLev trains connecting all their major cities....Along with Europe....America??????....
 
jdog21 said:
A train from Los Angeles to San Francisco cost twice as much as a border wall.
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Actually the estimated cost to completion between LA and SF is estimated to be 77-82 BILLION.
 
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