High Speed Rail in the US: Why are we so bad at this?

[Thymeclock]

Ask yourself this: Who pays? Who benefits?

Then ask: Who pays most? Who benefits least? Who pays least? Who benefits most?

And if people don't want to pay for something, should they be forced to pay?

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by Weather Spotter

Fixed options like trains (or even buses) can not handle the diverse needs of most Americans.

The trouble is everything americans do is classified as a need, (I see phone and internet as a need, a bit of distortion there) I would argue that the "diverseness" is actually not the cause of why trains are unworkable but a symptom of trains and public transport not being present in recent history and VERY POOR or non-existant community planning. (and very poor random driving behaviors of most americans reacting to, oops we are out of... type situations)

If work, school related activities, home and businesses would be properly schedualed and positioned within communities and people would participate in those activities REASONABLY (as most americans can not seem to do) Travel routes would be more predictable, life would be less stressfull and local public transport would work.

We were there for one reason or another PRE-1940 for some reason we became incapable of randomly forming functional non-car communities after that.

That isn't to say all americans could use public transport all the time but MOST americans live in areas where it could work much of the time, the rest in rural areas are stuck. Odd part is my farmer relatives years ago, rarely went to town and rarely drove anywhere, a bit of our self sufficient nature went down the tubes.

Cheers
Ryan

[Weather Spotter]

I agree that most people should be able to make it work but... geting them to want to is the hard part. How would you sell the idea and make it stick for ten years?

I would love to be independant enough to only need to go town once a week (church) and shooing.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by Weather Spotter

I agree that most people should be able to make it work but... geting them to want to is the hard part. How would you sell the idea and make it stick for ten years?

I would love to be independant enough to only need to go town once a week (church) and shooing.

I don't know, most city people I talk to hate long drives, traffic and related jams thereof.

Another issue is jobs and living environment, not having stable work, with stable hours is a huge drain on society, this BS of doing whatever is cheapest wherever is destroying more than our livelyhoods and has massive hidden costs.

[Weather Spotter]

True that is a bad thin. Making people change all the time is not helping.

[SVOboy]

I just typed and lost a very long reply to the terrible starbuck's wifi I have to deal with. There goes 20 minutes of time I can't afford to repeat typing.

Anyway, three main things:
1. The NE corridor is similar to japan in density and travel needs. Maybe a bit less dense, but much more than many of the places the japanese shinkansen stretches.
2. Rail is more flexible for future energy needs because it is inherently electric-based.
3. I can't buy my own internet yet so until I find a reliable source of free wifi, I won't be able to check back in. Thanks for the discussion though fellas.

[miket]

I would like to see a high speed version of this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk_VkDuem0c

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by miket

I would like to see a high speed version of this.

Take the Shuttle between France and the UK

But due to the complex road/rail interconnection, this is an even more rigid means of transportation with even less places to get on/off the train - just 2 on Le Shuttle.
And it's hugely expensive both to build and operate.
Most likely, Eurotunnel will never recover its costs, despite the higher fares.

[miket]

Originally Posted by euromodder

Take the Shuttle between France and the UK

What speed does the car transporter go? I cant find the number.

Edit: It doesnt seem like it has to be that ridgid. If you have people getting off in 3 different places have them drive onto different cars of the train.