Fast Trains
Atrios:
New Japanese train to go 360 kph (223mph).
Let's imagine that it could realistically average 160mph.
Philadelphia to Pittsburgh: <1.5 hours
Boston to Washington: <3 hours
Los Angeles to San Francisco: 3 hours
Los Angeles to Phoenix: <3.5 hoursWell, you get the idea...
Indeed.
Minneapolis to Chicago: <3 hours
Minneapolis to Des Moines: 1.5 hours
posted by Luke Francl @ 10:39 PM |
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12 Comments:
plus... it's a kitty!
That goes without saying. Only in Japan!
Er, yeah. Slick train.
Any idea how much the subsidy per ride is?
Forgot to add in all the time at security.
Planes go about 500 MPH.
And when you don't want to go to Des Moines anymore, you can take them somewhere else.
-Censored
Apparently conservatives don't like trains or kitties. Huh. Too bad for them.
No Chuck, unlike alot of you here, most of us conservative guys like pussy.
However, no we don't like trains.
Censored
This is what we're dealing with, folks.
"What we're dealing with"...
Er, yeah. Let me send you a couple days of the drooling troglodytes that come over from Oliver Willis or Jesus' General. You'll be begging for your old commenters back.
Speaking of "dealing with..." - how about that subsidy per ride figure I asked about?
Because if our "successful" light rail costs closer to $10 per ride (of which the user pays 2), I can't imagine what the kitty train's gotta run.
Don't have the figure?
Sheesh. This is what I deal with...
Anonymous 1: But planes spew out all kinds of pollutants.
Anonymous 2: Don't you mean just Amtrak? Many freight railroads donate to GOP.
mitch: pointing out similar behavior in other commenters on other sites doesn't excuse it here - plain and simple.
Mitch,
You don't hop on a train that goes 200 miles per hour for a jaunt to the airport. This competes directly with short and medium haul airline travel.
According to Orbitz, a flight from Minneapolis to Chicago -- three weeks from now -- will run you $150-$160. This is what the train would be competing against. With the train, you don't need to book your ticket in advance, arrive closer to your destination because the stations are centrally located, and the ride is smoother and more comfortable (legroom anyone?).
With the increase in gasoline prices as demand reaches supply, I expect bullet trains to be more competitive with airlines. And don't forget the subsidy the airlines are currently enjoying. The huge post-9/11 bailout, and dumping their pensions on the taxpayers' laps. The airlines are marginally profitable, if at all. But they're essential for the country to function, so they'll be proped up till kingdom come.
In Japan, these trains are profitable, provided the government helps build the tracks.
The Japanese and Europeans have this concept called 'infrastructure.' It pays dividends to build infrastructure -- even if it's not directly profitable for the government! The government isn't in the business of making money. It provides infrastructure -- roads, laws, courts, police, trains -- that help the rest of us make money. America used to understand this. It was a huge cost to build the interstate highway system. Our original railroads were built because the government gave away the land.
Our transportation infrastructure -- with the exception of the interstates -- has suffered decades of neglect. It's time to fix that.
A high-speed rail line between Minneapolis and Chicago is probably not going to happen any time soon. Better to build it between New York and Washington and Boston , and LA and San Francisco. But is it too much to ask for a train that doesn't take 8 hours to get to Chicago? Talk about pathetic. Our rail system would make an Eastern European ashamed. We're going to pay for it when gas prices go up.
There's alreadly a passenger train from Minneapolis to Chicago, but it only goes about 80mph.
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