Florida Loses $2.4 Billion For High-Speed Trains

[Quantum Windbag]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKnWHa8k8VQ

I would rather be a sardine in a can than pack in like that.

That's not a passenger train, it's a commuter train. Tokyo uses a combination of underground subways and overground trains for mass transit.

Totally not what we are discussing.

I thought we were discussing the feasibility of public transportation. Forgive me for pointing out that Japan is so crowded that they cram people into their public transportation.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

And the reason you didn't get it was because it is run by private industry! They made a decision that it wasn't going to make them enough money to justify the expense of getting you high speed internet. This is how the Rightwingers want everything to run.

I think it's better and cheaper for government to handle big infrastructure projects, in the public good. Look at how much internet business and commerce was not done by all the people who are still stuck on dial-up. Amazon.com can't make Verizon or Comcast lay new transmission cable.

There are also a host of ways that local governments have shifted operations to the internet to slim down and save taxpayer money. But you can't utilize that efficiency if most of your citizenry can't effectively access your web content.

They talked, a few years ago, about offering internet service through the electrical grid, run by city utilities. It would have given everyone who had city electric high speed internet, and it would have been cheap. The plan was squashed by Comcast and Embarq lobbyists and money.

Don't you think that Congress giving them money to expand into areas where they could get more votes had anything to do with the delay in getting DSL into predominantly white, rural areas? Or the fact that when a company did invest the money on their own they had to rent out bandwidth to competitors for less that it actually cost them to offer service themselves?

Maybe you should get all the facts before you blame someone for something.

Link?

Link to what?

 

[The T]

Florida said NO. The lawsuit posed by some against the Governor to force the State to take the funds failed. If some private entity or group of individuals wants to take the risk? Let them. The taxpayers have had enough of big government schemes that end up failing and leave the taxpayers paying for that failure.

/STORY.

 

[driveby]

Replace long-haul trucking with long-haul rail and watch your gas price come way down.

All of the tractor trailer rigs in the U.S. use more oil than all the cars do in the U.S.

And i thought Obama's ideas were bad, wow......

Facts are not bad or good.

The fact that you don't know or care what that would do to commerce, infrastructure and small businesses is bad.....

 

[Big Fitz]

I agree. I want more rail for freight purposes. I want to see a drastic reduction in 18 wheelers across the country. They are a huge use of oil.

I could see a HS train from Boston-NY-DC-Sanford, FL, - just upgrade the existing Amtrak Auto Train to high speed.

The Auto-Train was a great idea that died because it's practical costs were too great.

It's still running, I believe.

Not according to my Guide on Abandoned and Merged railroads I have. It shut down operation in 1978. Amtrak could not make it work because the price for hauling a car plus family was far too expensive.

Edit: I stand corrected... and shocked! It was shut down for decades. Must have decided to try it again. Almost the same route too.

Now the question is, why only that line? If it was a great idea, why can't it go elsewhere. I'm sure a NYC to Chicago, or Los Angeles to Denver route could be very useful. I just doubt the costs could be made low enough and the demand would be there.

Further edit: After checking it out. A one way one person ticket is 93 dollars. The vehicle adds an extra $203. So, are you willing to pay, one way 293 bucks, plus tax to ride the train with your car as added convenience? And just think! That's already federally subsidized prices!

 

[Care4all]

another question to ask is: Should florida spend money on this and not have the money to pay teachers in the long run?

 

[Big Fitz]

another question to ask is: Should florida spend money on this and not have the money to pay teachers in the long run?

Or better still, not take the tax monies and leave them in the hands of the private sector to do with it as they will.

 

[Synthaholic]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKnWHa8k8VQ

I would rather be a sardine in a can than pack in like that.

That's not a passenger train, it's a commuter train. Tokyo uses a combination of underground subways and overground trains for mass transit.

Totally not what we are discussing.

I thought we were discussing the feasibility of public transportation. Forgive me for pointing out that Japan is so crowded that they cram people into their public transportation.

Then you thought wrong.

 

[Synthaholic]

And i thought Obama's ideas were bad, wow......

Facts are not bad or good.

The fact that you don't know or care what that would do to commerce, infrastructure and small businesses is bad.....

It would improve commerce by making energy costs lower, improve infrastructure by getting many trucks off the highways (trucks do the most damage to roads), and small business would have the benefits of cheaper transportation costs for their goods.

 

[hortysir]

Florida said NO. The lawsuit posed by some against the Governor to force the State to take the funds failed. If some private entity or group of individuals wants to take the risk? Let them. The taxpayers have had enough of big government schemes that end up failing and leave the taxpayers paying for that failure.

/STORY.

THAT, my friend, is the heart of the matter.





Doesn't the "commerce clause" only relate to interstate, NOT intra-state?



Back off, Big Brother

 

[The T]

Florida said NO. The lawsuit posed by some against the Governor to force the State to take the funds failed. If some private entity or group of individuals wants to take the risk? Let them. The taxpayers have had enough of big government schemes that end up failing and leave the taxpayers paying for that failure.

/STORY.

THAT, my friend, is the heart of the matter.





Doesn't the "commerce clause" only relate to interstate, NOT intra-state?



Back off, Big Brother

But yet the lefties here drone on as to think the FED can force anything they want. They are in for a very RUDE awakening.

 

[The T]

The Auto-Train was a great idea that died because it's practical costs were too great.

It's still running, I believe.

Not according to my Guide on Abandoned and Merged railroads I have. It shut down operation in 1978. Amtrak could not make it work because the price for hauling a car plus family was far too expensive.

Edit: I stand corrected... and shocked! It was shut down for decades. Must have decided to try it again. Almost the same route too.

Now the question is, why only that line? If it was a great idea, why can't it go elsewhere. I'm sure a NYC to Chicago, or Los Angeles to Denver route could be very useful. I just doubt the costs could be made low enough and the demand would be there.

Further edit: After checking it out. A one way one person ticket is 93 dollars. The vehicle adds an extra $203. So, are you willing to pay, one way 293 bucks, plus tax to ride the train with your car as added convenience? And just think! That's already federally subsidized prices!

The Auto-Train Still does run via AMTRAK from Sanford FL., to Lorton Virginia.

I know the old Auto Train you speak of. I used to watch those things speed by here on the old Seaboard Coast Line mainline when I was a teen under the power of GE "U-Boats" (U36B's)...

(Photos via Rail Pictures.net )

 

[washamericom]

it think it's no coincidence that this happens just as atlas shrugged is coming out.
high speed trains are easy targets for terrorism.

 

[Immanuel]

Yes, it is running.

Amtrak - Routes - Northeast - Auto Train

I think it's the best of both worlds. If I could pack my family and my car onto a train in Florida and be in NY seven hours later, driving my own vehicle? That's perfect.

Seven hours? Are you talking about HSR or the current system we have?

I wanted to visit my brother in Va Beach from Tampa a few years ago. Having never been on a real train (as opposed to the Disneyland Train), I called Amtrak. The cost alone was prohibitive without adding the car and it was going to take something like 21 hours to go from Tampa to Richmond, Va and then I had to switch to a bus and that was going to take another 4 hours, if I am not mistaken.

Well, I drove instead which takes 14 hours... I know, I drove it yesterday.

Immie

 

[The T]

it think it's no coincidence that this happens just as atlas shrugged is coming out.
high speed trains are easy targets for terrorism.

*ANYTHING* in a free society such as ours are ripe targets.

 

[driveby]

Facts are not bad or good.

The fact that you don't know or care what that would do to commerce, infrastructure and small businesses is bad.....

It would improve commerce by making energy costs lower, improve infrastructure by getting many trucks off the highways (trucks do the most damage to roads), and small business would have the benefits of cheaper transportation costs for their goods.

Ahhh, life is just so grand living in a theorhetical, liberal utopia .....

 

[washamericom]

it think it's no coincidence that this happens just as atlas shrugged is coming out.
high speed trains are easy targets for terrorism.

*ANYTHING* in a free society such as ours are ripe targets.

that's true T, but 300 mph can cause a lot of havoc, they're too vulnerable

 

[The T]

it think it's no coincidence that this happens just as atlas shrugged is coming out.
high speed trains are easy targets for terrorism.

*ANYTHING* in a free society such as ours are ripe targets.

that's true T, but 300 mph can cause a lot of havoc, they're too vulnerable

Yeah, true...but so can a well-planted device in a crowded mall.

 

[Political Junky]

it think it's no coincidence that this happens just as atlas shrugged is coming out.
high speed trains are easy targets for terrorism.

*ANYTHING* in a free society such as ours are ripe targets.

that's true T, but 300 mph can cause a lot of havoc, they're too vulnerable

Train speed has not been a safety problem anywhere, that I've heard. Do you have a link?

 

[The T]

*ANYTHING* in a free society such as ours are ripe targets.

that's true T, but 300 mph can cause a lot of havoc, they're too vulnerable

Train speed has not been a safety problem anywhere, that I've heard. Do you have a link?

It does if the rails and equipment are faulty...

Eschede train disaster<Germany, 1998