Why Japan’s Bullet Train Will Finally Bring High-Speed Rail to America

[Pogo]

Blog Dianne Feinstein s husband wins near-billion dollar California high speed rail contract

Corruption much?

Going by the article you linked --- no, apparently not.

 

[Blackrook]

It is not so far in the future when people will take a rocket to low orbit to get around this planet. It will only take a few hours to travel to the other side of the world.

Why do the Democrats want to waste money on a technology that has been obsolete for decades?

Because it's not about helping ordinary people, it's about helping the criminal class that runs the State of California.

 

[Papageorgio]

Bear in mind that all of these other countries you mention are much smaller than we are and far more compact. I can possibly see the benefit of a high speed train between places like New York and D.C. or LA to Las Vegas, etc., but who would want to take a high speed train from New York to LA when you can fly there at 700 miles per hour in five hours? How much more affordable than a plane would these high speed trains be?

I would, in a heartbeat. Couple of years ago I took a vacation to Oregon, completely across the country, by train. You see one hell of a lot more. We didn't have to go by train obviously -- it was a conscious choice.

If you take a plane, first you have to get to the airport, which is never near where anybody lives, so that's a trek ... then you gotta deal with all sorts of blatantly stupid restrictions on how much toothpaste you can pack... then you have to make your way in from the airport on the other end.... a train puts you right there in the center of town.

I still to this day have fond memories and images of a delightful train ride I took from Chicago to Philadelphia, 30 years ago, because of the outstanding scenery along the New River in West Virginia. I have no such experiences on a plane. The only plane experience that stands out was a near-collision.

I'll drive, Amtrak is always late in my area. Anywhere from 2-6 hours. The staff are the rudest bunch one can encounter. When the person in front of me complained about being late the attendant snapped back "I'm going to be late too!". My thought is...he is being paid while being late. Everyone else is have to pay for being late.

They need a huge overall otherwise I won't ride them again, it's is now Greyhound on the tracks.

 

[westwall]

And Paris to London is one of the very few places where it is faster than an airplane. Paris to anywhere else in Europe and we fly.

Not me. France has some fast trains (not even counting the TGV) and more to the point, you can go pretty much anywhere with them. I never had to hop a ride 100+ miles to get to one, that's for sure.

I'll beat you in a car to almost every one of them. The waits are atrocious. If we're traveling from Paris to Toulon the train is faster than the car by about two hours, but the plane is faster still.

Again..... "beating" is not the point. "Beating" doesn't have a po int. Unless you're rushing to catch a plane.

I can remember many trains in France. What I can't remember is waiting for any.

Yes, it does. Most people have a week or two for their vacation. Thus, when it takes over a day to get from one location to another, whereas an aircraft will take a couple of hours, time is critical. I'm not even talking a great distance. Lets talk Seattle to Portland. My wife and I drove it while my daughter rode with her grandma, we had to wait for them for a couple of hours and that was AFTER we spent time antiquing on the way down.

So, while they were stuck on the train, we were able to stop at several antique shops, eat, and visit the USS Oregon Memorial, all before they got to Portland. You are as wrong as wrong can be.

Uh --- no, I'm not. You take the time you have... and you manage it. Ain't rocket surgery. You people who entertain this obsession with speed at any cost.... SMH

How do you manage a weeks trip across country on a train to visit relatives vs flying for 5 hours and actually being able to spend time with them? No, you are wrong as wrong can be.

 

[Political Junky]

Bear in mind that all of these other countries you mention are much smaller than we are and far more compact. I can possibly see the benefit of a high speed train between places like New York and D.C. or LA to Las Vegas, etc., but who would want to take a high speed train from New York to LA when you can fly there at 700 miles per hour in five hours? How much more affordable than a plane would these high speed trains be?

I would, in a heartbeat. Couple of years ago I took a vacation to Oregon, completely across the country, by train. You see one hell of a lot more. We didn't have to go by train obviously -- it was a conscious choice.

If you take a plane, first you have to get to the airport, which is never near where anybody lives, so that's a trek ... then you gotta deal with all sorts of blatantly stupid restrictions on how much toothpaste you can pack... then you have to make your way in from the airport on the other end.... a train puts you right there in the center of town.

I still to this day have fond memories and images of a delightful train ride I took from Chicago to Philadelphia, 30 years ago, because of the outstanding scenery along the New River in West Virginia. I have no such experiences on a plane. The only plane experience that stands out was a near-collision.

I'll drive, Amtrak is always late in my area. Anywhere from 2-6 hours. The staff are the rudest bunch one can encounter. When the person in front of me complained about being late the attendant snapped back "I'm going to be late too!". My thought is...he is being paid while being late. Everyone else is have to pay for being late.

They need a huge overall otherwise I won't ride them again, it's is now Greyhound on the tracks.

No one will argue with you about AMTRAK, that's why we need a new high speed system. It's been repeated many times.

 

[Political Junky]

Not me. France has some fast trains (not even counting the TGV) and more to the point, you can go pretty much anywhere with them. I never had to hop a ride 100+ miles to get to one, that's for sure.

I'll beat you in a car to almost every one of them. The waits are atrocious. If we're traveling from Paris to Toulon the train is faster than the car by about two hours, but the plane is faster still.

Again..... "beating" is not the point. "Beating" doesn't have a po int. Unless you're rushing to catch a plane.

I can remember many trains in France. What I can't remember is waiting for any.

Yes, it does. Most people have a week or two for their vacation. Thus, when it takes over a day to get from one location to another, whereas an aircraft will take a couple of hours, time is critical. I'm not even talking a great distance. Lets talk Seattle to Portland. My wife and I drove it while my daughter rode with her grandma, we had to wait for them for a couple of hours and that was AFTER we spent time antiquing on the way down.

So, while they were stuck on the train, we were able to stop at several antique shops, eat, and visit the USS Oregon Memorial, all before they got to Portland. You are as wrong as wrong can be.

Uh --- no, I'm not. You take the time you have... and you manage it. Ain't rocket surgery. You people who entertain this obsession with speed at any cost.... SMH

How do you manage a weeks trip across country on a train to visit relatives vs flying for 5 hours and actually being able to spend time with them? No, you are wrong as wrong can be.

High speed rail would certainly not take a week to cross the country.

 

[Papageorgio]

I'll beat you in a car to almost every one of them. The waits are atrocious. If we're traveling from Paris to Toulon the train is faster than the car by about two hours, but the plane is faster still.

Again..... "beating" is not the point. "Beating" doesn't have a po int. Unless you're rushing to catch a plane.

I can remember many trains in France. What I can't remember is waiting for any.

Yes, it does. Most people have a week or two for their vacation. Thus, when it takes over a day to get from one location to another, whereas an aircraft will take a couple of hours, time is critical. I'm not even talking a great distance. Lets talk Seattle to Portland. My wife and I drove it while my daughter rode with her grandma, we had to wait for them for a couple of hours and that was AFTER we spent time antiquing on the way down.

So, while they were stuck on the train, we were able to stop at several antique shops, eat, and visit the USS Oregon Memorial, all before they got to Portland. You are as wrong as wrong can be.

Uh --- no, I'm not. You take the time you have... and you manage it. Ain't rocket surgery. You people who entertain this obsession with speed at any cost.... SMH

How do you manage a weeks trip across country on a train to visit relatives vs flying for 5 hours and actually being able to spend time with them? No, you are wrong as wrong can be.

High speed rail would certainly not take a week to cross the country.

How many trillions are we talking? We as a nation are so far in debt. How do we afford such luxury and do we need it, when a system is already in place.

 

[Political Junky]

Again..... "beating" is not the point. "Beating" doesn't have a po int. Unless you're rushing to catch a plane.

I can remember many trains in France. What I can't remember is waiting for any.

Yes, it does. Most people have a week or two for their vacation. Thus, when it takes over a day to get from one location to another, whereas an aircraft will take a couple of hours, time is critical. I'm not even talking a great distance. Lets talk Seattle to Portland. My wife and I drove it while my daughter rode with her grandma, we had to wait for them for a couple of hours and that was AFTER we spent time antiquing on the way down.

So, while they were stuck on the train, we were able to stop at several antique shops, eat, and visit the USS Oregon Memorial, all before they got to Portland. You are as wrong as wrong can be.

Uh --- no, I'm not. You take the time you have... and you manage it. Ain't rocket surgery. You people who entertain this obsession with speed at any cost.... SMH

How do you manage a weeks trip across country on a train to visit relatives vs flying for 5 hours and actually being able to spend time with them? No, you are wrong as wrong can be.

High speed rail would certainly not take a week to cross the country.

How many trillions are we talking? We as a nation are so far in debt. How do we afford such luxury and do we need it, when a system is already in place.

So, you prefer a system that is outdated and nearly useless? The world has passed us by.

 

[Blackrook]

If a high speed rail was necessary, someone would have already built it.

 

[Political Junky]

If a high speed rail was necessary, someone would have already built it.

Oh, sure.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

People used trains cross-country in the past, when planes were available.

Yes, planes were available, but hardly affordable for the average joe back on those days. Eventually plane travel became far more economical for the vast majority of people and that is why today traveling by train across the country is pretty much obsolete.

No it isn't. Train travel simply hasn't gotten the support it gets elsewhere. Part of the reason for that is geographical, in that our country is more spread out than, say, Europe and Japan... though not as much as, say, Russia. Now, as you already noted we do have regions that are, like the northeast corridor -- but Amtrak up there is nowhere near the facility that European train travel is, neither in efficiency or cost.

And another part of that is the artificial value placed on "time". As if it really really matters to get there four minutes earlier.

I found out the hard way how inaccessible train travel can be here in NC Appalachia -- when I had reason to take a train to Ohio. I had to get a ride over a hundred miles just to access a train. And it's clearly not because tracks don't exist -- they do. What doesn't exist is the service ON those tracks.

If there was a public demand for massive train travel we'd have it. There simply isn't. Most people choose to fly long distances because it's just faster than any other method. It's approximately 2,800 miles from LA to NYC. Even in a bullet train going 300 MPH it would take about ten hours to get there and that is only if it's nonstop, which is highly unlikely. So you're taking what could be a five hour flight and turning it into an entire day's journey. Unless it's considerably cheaper than a plane ticket, which it won't be, there is no trade off value here.

That is why we do not have a massive passenger rail network.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

If a high speed rail was necessary, someone would have already built it.

Oh, sure.

He's right. If there was money to be made in it you think those evil, greedy corporations you despise would be passing it up?

 

[Pogo]

I'll beat you in a car to almost every one of them. The waits are atrocious. If we're traveling from Paris to Toulon the train is faster than the car by about two hours, but the plane is faster still.

Again..... "beating" is not the point. "Beating" doesn't have a po int. Unless you're rushing to catch a plane.

I can remember many trains in France. What I can't remember is waiting for any.

Yes, it does. Most people have a week or two for their vacation. Thus, when it takes over a day to get from one location to another, whereas an aircraft will take a couple of hours, time is critical. I'm not even talking a great distance. Lets talk Seattle to Portland. My wife and I drove it while my daughter rode with her grandma, we had to wait for them for a couple of hours and that was AFTER we spent time antiquing on the way down.

So, while they were stuck on the train, we were able to stop at several antique shops, eat, and visit the USS Oregon Memorial, all before they got to Portland. You are as wrong as wrong can be.

Uh --- no, I'm not. You take the time you have... and you manage it. Ain't rocket surgery. You people who entertain this obsession with speed at any cost.... SMH

How do you manage a weeks trip across country on a train to visit relatives vs flying for 5 hours and actually being able to spend time with them? No, you are wrong as wrong can be.

High speed rail would certainly not take a week to cross the country.

Ask Westwall about his driving exploits. He's got some imagination.

Our entire trip was two weeks, and that included training from New Orleans out to Portland, renting a car, jaunting around inside Oregon and then up the coast, around the tip of Washington, then east to Seattle to visit my brother, then back down to Portland to return the car and get on the train back to New Orleans.

As I said -- time management.

 

[Pogo]

If a high speed rail was necessary, someone would have already built it.

Oh, sure.

He's right. If there was money to be made in it you think those evil, greedy corporations you despise would be passing it up?

That kind of infrastructure is not the sort of thing "market demand" dictates. Doesn't work that way, never did.

 

[westwall]

I'll beat you in a car to almost every one of them. The waits are atrocious. If we're traveling from Paris to Toulon the train is faster than the car by about two hours, but the plane is faster still.

Again..... "beating" is not the point. "Beating" doesn't have a po int. Unless you're rushing to catch a plane.

I can remember many trains in France. What I can't remember is waiting for any.

Yes, it does. Most people have a week or two for their vacation. Thus, when it takes over a day to get from one location to another, whereas an aircraft will take a couple of hours, time is critical. I'm not even talking a great distance. Lets talk Seattle to Portland. My wife and I drove it while my daughter rode with her grandma, we had to wait for them for a couple of hours and that was AFTER we spent time antiquing on the way down.

So, while they were stuck on the train, we were able to stop at several antique shops, eat, and visit the USS Oregon Memorial, all before they got to Portland. You are as wrong as wrong can be.

Uh --- no, I'm not. You take the time you have... and you manage it. Ain't rocket surgery. You people who entertain this obsession with speed at any cost.... SMH

How do you manage a weeks trip across country on a train to visit relatives vs flying for 5 hours and actually being able to spend time with them? No, you are wrong as wrong can be.

High speed rail would certainly not take a week to cross the country.

That is certainly true. It is also true that there is no country on this planet that could afford to build it. Interstate highways cost 10 million per mile. The California rail system is estimated (low I might add) to be 81 million per mile. That means the cost (at 81 million per) is 234,900,000,000 to go cross country. This does not take into account crossing rivers, mountains or deserts. We are merely assuming a nice flat farmland like they will be building on in California.

Once you begin to look at what you are postulating you have to realize just how far beyond reality it is.

 

[westwall]

Yes, it does. Most people have a week or two for their vacation. Thus, when it takes over a day to get from one location to another, whereas an aircraft will take a couple of hours, time is critical. I'm not even talking a great distance. Lets talk Seattle to Portland. My wife and I drove it while my daughter rode with her grandma, we had to wait for them for a couple of hours and that was AFTER we spent time antiquing on the way down.

So, while they were stuck on the train, we were able to stop at several antique shops, eat, and visit the USS Oregon Memorial, all before they got to Portland. You are as wrong as wrong can be.

Uh --- no, I'm not. You take the time you have... and you manage it. Ain't rocket surgery. You people who entertain this obsession with speed at any cost.... SMH

How do you manage a weeks trip across country on a train to visit relatives vs flying for 5 hours and actually being able to spend time with them? No, you are wrong as wrong can be.

High speed rail would certainly not take a week to cross the country.

How many trillions are we talking? We as a nation are so far in debt. How do we afford such luxury and do we need it, when a system is already in place.

So, you prefer a system that is outdated and nearly useless? The world has passed us by.

Who cares. It's not a contest to see who can build the biggest train set. The real world tells us that a bankrupt country with starving people could really not give a shit about a pretty train set.

 

[westwall]

Again..... "beating" is not the point. "Beating" doesn't have a po int. Unless you're rushing to catch a plane.

I can remember many trains in France. What I can't remember is waiting for any.

Yes, it does. Most people have a week or two for their vacation. Thus, when it takes over a day to get from one location to another, whereas an aircraft will take a couple of hours, time is critical. I'm not even talking a great distance. Lets talk Seattle to Portland. My wife and I drove it while my daughter rode with her grandma, we had to wait for them for a couple of hours and that was AFTER we spent time antiquing on the way down.

So, while they were stuck on the train, we were able to stop at several antique shops, eat, and visit the USS Oregon Memorial, all before they got to Portland. You are as wrong as wrong can be.

Uh --- no, I'm not. You take the time you have... and you manage it. Ain't rocket surgery. You people who entertain this obsession with speed at any cost.... SMH

How do you manage a weeks trip across country on a train to visit relatives vs flying for 5 hours and actually being able to spend time with them? No, you are wrong as wrong can be.

High speed rail would certainly not take a week to cross the country.

Ask Westwall about his driving exploits. He's got some imagination.

Our entire trip was two weeks, and that included training from New Orleans out to Portland, renting a car, jaunting around inside Oregon and then up the coast, around the tip of Washington, then east to Seattle to visit my brother, then back down to Portland to return the car and get on the train back to New Orleans.

As I said -- time management.

Big whoop. While you were stuck on the train we went to the Smithsonian, the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum, Gettysburg, Philly, Aberdeen Proving grounds, Valley Forge, Annapolis, the USS Constitution, the Peabody Library and a host of places, things and people in between. I think we managed our time very well. I guarantee you we saw twenty times more than you did.

 

[Political Junky]

Uh --- no, I'm not. You take the time you have... and you manage it. Ain't rocket surgery. You people who entertain this obsession with speed at any cost.... SMH

How do you manage a weeks trip across country on a train to visit relatives vs flying for 5 hours and actually being able to spend time with them? No, you are wrong as wrong can be.

High speed rail would certainly not take a week to cross the country.

How many trillions are we talking? We as a nation are so far in debt. How do we afford such luxury and do we need it, when a system is already in place.

So, you prefer a system that is outdated and nearly useless? The world has passed us by.

Who cares. It's not a contest to see who can build the biggest train set. The real world tells us that a bankrupt country with starving people could really not give a shit about a pretty train set.

Lincoln did it while fighting the Civil War. I know the Right has disowned him.

 

[Unkotare]

How do you manage a weeks trip across country on a train to visit relatives vs flying for 5 hours and actually being able to spend time with them? No, you are wrong as wrong can be.

High speed rail would certainly not take a week to cross the country.

How many trillions are we talking? We as a nation are so far in debt. How do we afford such luxury and do we need it, when a system is already in place.

So, you prefer a system that is outdated and nearly useless? The world has passed us by.

Who cares. It's not a contest to see who can build the biggest train set. The real world tells us that a bankrupt country with starving people could really not give a shit about a pretty train set.

Lincoln did it while fighting the Civil War. I know the Right has disowned him.

Red Herring

 

[Pogo]

Yes, it does. Most people have a week or two for their vacation. Thus, when it takes over a day to get from one location to another, whereas an aircraft will take a couple of hours, time is critical. I'm not even talking a great distance. Lets talk Seattle to Portland. My wife and I drove it while my daughter rode with her grandma, we had to wait for them for a couple of hours and that was AFTER we spent time antiquing on the way down.

So, while they were stuck on the train, we were able to stop at several antique shops, eat, and visit the USS Oregon Memorial, all before they got to Portland. You are as wrong as wrong can be.

Uh --- no, I'm not. You take the time you have... and you manage it. Ain't rocket surgery. You people who entertain this obsession with speed at any cost.... SMH

How do you manage a weeks trip across country on a train to visit relatives vs flying for 5 hours and actually being able to spend time with them? No, you are wrong as wrong can be.

High speed rail would certainly not take a week to cross the country.

Ask Westwall about his driving exploits. He's got some imagination.

Our entire trip was two weeks, and that included training from New Orleans out to Portland, renting a car, jaunting around inside Oregon and then up the coast, around the tip of Washington, then east to Seattle to visit my brother, then back down to Portland to return the car and get on the train back to New Orleans.

As I said -- time management.

Big whoop. While you were stuck on the train we went to the Smithsonian, the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum, Gettysburg, Philly, Aberdeen Proving grounds, Valley Forge, Annapolis, the USS Constitution, the Peabody Library and a host of places, things and people in between. I think we managed our time very well. I guarantee you we saw twenty times more than you did.

Seeing as how you think it takes a train a week to cross this country -- I doubt you know what you saw.