Can we keep the train and send an $8B bullet back and forth between Chicago and Vegas?

I don't know about this plan specifically, but I'm a big fan of high-speed transit in general. I don't understand what the big fear of efficient public transportation is. If costs me an extra hundred dollars to ride a high-speed as opposed to driving from Chicago to Vegas, I'm all for it.

Can we just connect every major city, please? And can we build it out of tubes, please? Is that so much to ask, really?

High speed rail is an excellent idea. Why is this particular route flawed?

Except that's not what it means at all. No projects have been approved, or even really proposed yet. People have ideas about rail lines they'd like, but that's as far as it's gone.

Hiro Nakamura: I don't understand what the big fear of efficient public transportation is.

Because we (America) have a abnormal obsession with our cars....

an obsession bordering on dementia

/that, and we don't wanna rub elbows with our fellow 'Mericans during our commutes

The $8 billion will be gone before the first rail is laid.

Bucky Katt: High speed rail is an excellent idea. Why is this particular route flawed?

Didn't you RTFA? It's a highway of SSSSSSSIN!!

Bucky Katt: High speed rail is an excellent idea. Why is this particular route flawed?

It's flawed because Las Vegas (apparently) = Harry Reid.

Personally, I think a SoCal to Vegas high speed rail line would be phenomenal. But I don't think it's going to happen. I think it's far more likely that those transportation stimulus dollars will got to places like Ohio. You know, Boehner's district.

Dammit... I invested everything in monorail stock!

8 Billion for speed rails? Man.. that's a lot of blow...

Personally, I think a SoCal to Vegas high speed rail line would be phenomenal.

It's one of very few intercity lines outside of the Northeast that might make sense. There's a lot of traffic between concentrated regions. I-15 is being widened which means peak volume along the corridor is over 50,000 per day. But I expect a ride to cost well over $100.

ZAZ: Personally, I think a SoCal to Vegas high speed rail line would be phenomenal.

It's one of very few intercity lines outside of the Northeast that might make sense. There's a lot of traffic between concentrated regions. I-15 is being widened which means peak volume along the corridor is over 50,000 per day. But I expect a ride to cost well over $100.

$100 would be worth it not to have to sit in that Sunday I-15 traffic jam.

JacksBlack: Can we just connect every major city, please? And can we build it out of tubes, please? Is that so much to ask, really?

We have that. It's called the internet. the series of tubes that connects computers together.

Hell, if I can get from Minneapolis to Milwaukee in under three hours, that'd be worth a couple of extra bucks to me.

Cool. There is an obvious need for a bullet train system in the SF-LA-Vegas triangle.

I was so excited because I heard that Amtrak had lowered the price of weekend trips on the Acela line (DC-Boston, through Philly). I was like, finally, I can hop on a train and go to NYC for the weekend!

By lowered prices they mean $100 for a roundtrip ticket for one person, and you can only travel between 12:01 saturday morning (and I don't think the trains start til 4am), and around noon sunday.

Seriously guys. When its cheaper AND faster for me to find a friend, drive to NJ, rent a hotel room for 2 nights and take the train in, YOU HAVE ISSUES.

Why the hell does it cost $50 WHEN ITS DISCOUNTED and 4 hours!! to get from DC to NYC by train. You can, I believe, literally. drive. it. faster.


Anyway, as relates to this article. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE can we have some more rail lines, and can someone make them efficient and economical?

propasaurus: $100 would be worth it not to have to sit in that Sunday I-15 traffic jam.

This doesn't have anything to do with anything- but when I first moved to Oceanside I read an article about a guy who lived in Vegas but worked in San Marcos. He worked 4 12s a week and had an apartment in SM to live in during the work week. This was because housing prices were so high in the area that it was cheaper to pay the gas to commute and rent a place with roommates. This was when gas was still under 2.00/gal in the area though.

I think a high speed rail line in the area would work wonders for a guy like that.

ZAZ: Personally, I think a SoCal to Vegas high speed rail line would be phenomenal.

It's one of very few intercity lines outside of the Northeast that might make sense. There's a lot of traffic between concentrated regions. I-15 is being widened which means peak volume along the corridor is over 50,000 per day. But I expect a ride to cost well over $100.

I'd use the train. No Car = No Problem.

Hiro Nakamura: I don't understand what the big fear of efficient public transportation is.

The automotive industry, oil industry, and banking industry would collapse overnight if it weren't for the illusion of the "open road". Personally I'd love high speed rail which would allow me to sit back and relax as I went somewhere. Hell I could even sleep if I wanted to. Fark driving.

Hiro Nakamura: I don't understand what the big fear of efficient public transportation is.

That is the decisive word. If you have an efficient system, then everything is fine. However those are as common as hens teeth. The fed loves to throw money around for mass transit to cities and states who then put together a half assed setup *cough* Minniapolis*cough* that nobody uses because it is slow and expensive and in general, sucks compared to the alternatives.

I took the bus once in Grand Forks from UND to the closest stop where I live. In the end it would have been faster for me to walk home.

I don't think anyone is actually proposing Chicago-to-Vegas. There's Vegas-to-Anaheim, and there's Chicago-to-[everywhere in the Midwest], but in this case submitter didn't have any reading comprehension. I'm a fan of the Chicago-to-everywhere plan though.

TFA also mentions a rail line btwn Anaheim & LV. But when you come right down to it, some Neocon somewhere is going to complain about ANY planned mag-lev route this bill would help pay for.

"How is this going to help MY district?" Screw you--you voted against it, remember?

Wait...somebody in D.C. wants to do something that might actually make our passenger rail system profitable? Dude, welcome to Bizarro World.



NewportBarGuy: Dammit... I invested everything in monorail stock!

Haha. They actually built one here in Indy....actually, it was one of the hospital companies built it to link their two major sites and the new pathology lab in between...but still, it's a nice little ride.

Bucky Katt: High speed rail is an excellent idea. Why is this particular route flawed?

That. (note: this would connect a big international airport with a great place for tourists to the U.S. to spend lots and lots of money)

Isotope: Bucky Katt: High speed rail is an excellent idea. Why is this particular route flawed?

That. (note: this would connect a big international airport with a great place for tourists to the U.S. to spend lots and lots of money)

Are there any major hubs between CHA and LV? Obviously you would want it to stop there.

DamnYankees: Are there any major hubs between CHA and LV? Obviously you would want it to stop there.

Denver is a good halfway point, almost exactly on a straight line between CHA and LV...good thinking. Denver is another good place for the tourists to stop and spend lots of money. =D

Isotope: DamnYankees: Are there any major hubs between CHA and LV? Obviously you would want it to stop there.

Denver is a good halfway point, almost exactly on a straight line between CHA and LV...good thinking. Denver is another good place for the tourists to stop and spend lots of money. =D

Good call.

It's pretty embarrassing how poor our rail lines are. I'm going to China in a few weeks and its so incredibly easy to go from city to city on rail at a good price. The fact that they are kicking our ass in infrastructure should be an embarassment to us. Not to mention the incredible train system in Japan...

Wait...somebody in D.C. wants to do something that might actually make our passenger rail system profitable?

No, somebody in D.C. wants to spend a few billion now to guarantee a need for federal subsidies for a generation to come. It's the liberal way.

We're not going to get a useful national high speed rail system out of this. We might get a LA-LV link that works as an exception to the general rule, like the Northeast Corridor kind of works today. The rest of the system will be a bigger money pit than Amtrak.

DamnYankees: It's pretty embarrassing how poor our rail lines are. I'm going to China in a few weeks and its so incredibly easy to go from city to city on rail at a good price. The fact that they are kicking our ass in infrastructure should be an embarassment to us. Not to mention the incredible train system in Japan...

We live in Indianapolis, and not too long ago when we wanted to go visit our relatives in D.C. I looked up what it would cost to go by train instead of air, expecting to spend a little longer in transit but pay less. It turned out that traveling by train was twice as expensive and the trip would have taken 22 hours. It's time for our passenger rail industry to die or get a major overhaul, IMO.

I would love there to be a private train service with good private accomodations. It would be a good thing.

/I don't believe in AGW
//But I love some of the solutions.

Katie98_KT: I was so excited because I heard that Amtrak had lowered the price of weekend trips on the Acela line (DC-Boston, through Philly). I was like, finally, I can hop on a train and go to NYC for the weekend!


I looking at tickets to NYC from Toronto and it was so pathetic. It would take 12 hours each way and cost $230 for the round trip. Or I could fly out of Toronto airport for $240 both ways and be in NYC in an hour and a half. What type of shiat is that?

We JUST yesterday or two days ago, had the proposed map for all these sections, and they looked just like the standard greyhound "major routes" (ie, Detroit to Toledo via Chicago), and definitely did not connect west side of country to east side of country.

Canadian Canuck: I looking at tickets to NYC from Toronto and it was so pathetic. It would take 12 hours each way and cost $230 for the round trip. Or I could fly out of Toronto airport for $240 both ways and be in NYC in an hour and a half. What type of shiat is that?

The self-perpetuating kind.

No one takes the train, making it expensive, ensuring that no one takes the train.

On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well by seventy-six we'll be A.O.K.

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

The east coast rail system stops at Jacksonville, FL. Why does it stop there, but continues shortly after to Miami?

That'll hire a lot of Chinamen.

Why couldn't they connect Cleveland and Pittsburgh?

HighOnCraic: On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well by seventy-six we'll be A.O.K.

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

---------------------------------------------------------

LOL WUT?

Abzzstain: Except that's not what it means at all. No projects have been approved, or even really proposed yet. People have ideas about rail lines they'd like, but that's as far as it's gone.

Details. Details. You start factoring in details (and facts) and the next thing you know ... well, hell, you may no longer believe in CHANGE.

HenryFnord: Can we keep the train and send an $8B bullet back and forth between Chicago and Vegas?

Number41: Why couldn't they connect Cleveland and Pittsburgh?

===============================================================

your map is flawed. the lines are too crooked. can you imagine
traveling 400 mph and flying off the turns?

I got your stimulus package right here. And it always comes early.

I remember this stimulus plan, where they voted $8 Billion to build trains that had to speed around the country, keeping their speed above 100 miles an hour. And if their speed dropped below 100, they would lose the funding. I think the plan was called, "The Train that Couldn't Slow Down".

The Midwest plan. Why there's no Madison-Rockford-Chicago route I'll never understand. Just run it along I90, for chrissakes.

We really really need high speed from Vancouver, CA to San Diego and from Boston to Miami. 250 mph with very few stops.

Black plus White equals President: Number41: Why couldn't they connect Cleveland and Pittsburgh?

===============================================================

your map is flawed. the lines are too crooked. can you imagine
traveling 400 mph and flying off the turns?

Why wouldn't THEY (meaning poor schlub tax-payers) connect Bohub and BFE? Well - there aren't that many voters there, and there aren't that many campaigne contributers there.

/ OH! I see!

Number41: Why couldn't they connect Cleveland and Pittsburgh?

Would YOU want to conduct a train through a bunch of communities clinging to guns and religion? I didn't think so.

Oh for farks sake. I can't even link to it?

http://www.midwesthsr.org/graphics/midwest_hub_map_10_24_05.jpg

/sorry
//fail

Pointless use of money.

Rail works in Europe because of how much smaller it is.

Boston, NYC, DC is the only viable route and that's not even on the map FTFA.