Why Do Conservatives oppose High Speed Rail?

And it's quieter and smoother than any airliner. I can vouch for that!

And you're not crammed into some narrow seat with your carry on jammed under the seat in front of you! Plus, you can get up and go to the club car, and arrive downtown in not much more time than it would take you to fly and get a taxi or a shuttle to the same place!

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Yup!

I did the comparison on a London to Paris run. We went out on Eurostar, and back via BA.

The train wins, hands down!

 

To make it try and pay for it's self, you'd have to add a lot of stops so people could get on and off and be close to where they can catch it and want to go. Every stop takes time and even at traveling at 200 mph, it's going to be a longer trip than most people realize.

 

But doesn't that run in the tunnel which runs under the ocean and would have no stops in between?

 

Actually, the commercial aviation industry wouldn't exist were it not for very genorous government subsities throughout the 1920's and 30's.

While the DC-3 was a commercial only design, many other airliners (the Ju-52, He-111, Locheed Electra, the Boeing Stratocruiser, and the 707 were civilian offshoots of military designs.

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Gee, I didn't remember that airliner that brought me from Chas D Gaulle back to Heathrow stopping anywhere in between either!

 

Really? The train I was on was full. Oh, and the trip was just a little over two hours. Just a little longer than a feature length movie, which a lot of people were watching on tablets to pass the time.

 

No, thats people who are earning $200,000. a year, they understand the job isn't across the street, and you go where the work requires you go, and that may chnage every week, month or year. I never had a job less than 50 miles from home, and most like 75 or over. But I sure would use a bullet train if available to be at home, because that is the purpose of working, have a place, not a hotel room.

 

And my car can do 150. So fricking what. What matters is the average speed. The average high speed rail speed is about 110. Like I said it takes the ICE five and a half hours to go from Hamburg to Munich. That is reality.

 

I thin his point is that the chunnel is a quit different situation because it never has to slow down. Over land trains are a different story. They have to constantly speed up and slow down. Even the express. That is why it takes 5 and a half hours to go from Hamburg to Munich. You just cant divide the distance by the top speed.

 

439 miles from DC to Boston.
By the way no one is taking a train 200mph down the rockies. And how do you plan on avoiding rock slides?

 

Distance by train: Paris-Marseille = 862 km
Time travel by train: Paris-Marseille = 3h18 (with a stop at Lyon)
Price starts at 49 € but if you're very lucky you can get a ticket for only 10 €.
Thanks for playing.

 

Fair enough.

 

One should always know the answer to this type of question before posting. So my question is did you do your research on why these Govenors reject the proposal? I know the answer is no. so another clueless leftest trying to spark a fight. So typical.

 

Munich to Hamburg topography much more like what you would see tiring to get down east coast of US 610.17 km 5h:30.

Thanks for playing

 

So you've never heard of tunnels and bridges to get around the topography?

[video=youtube;4W2aDMCOXhY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W2aDMCOXhY[/video]

Thanks for travelling with us.

 

I believe the US should focus on MagLev in vacuum environments.

 

Yes like the Germans dont understand tunnels and bridges. They are better engineers than the French but there is still only so much you can do.

 

I'd live to have a decent alternative to driving. To me, driving is a boring pain in the butt! If I could get a train ride from say Baltimore to Pittsburgh round trip for $100 or so, that took even 3-4 hours each way, I would consider it, especially in the winter months.

 

Back in the 70s I worked for a railroad. As part of that I had a credential that allowed me to ride in the locomotive of any train any time.

You know how often I used it? When my boss told me to ride that train to troubleshoot the locomotive. Riding trains sucks mightily.

 

Uh huh. When was the last time a TGV got stuck in a traffic jam, had a flat. Oh, and where are you allowed to do 150?

 

I don't think rock slides will be a big problem between Boston and DC.

Whether the conservatives on this thread like it or not, high speed rail is coming to the Northeast Corridor.

Design drawings are at about 1/3 complete stage for the line between Philadelphia and DC. This is the former Philadelphia Wilmington and Baltimore main line (later incorporated in the Pennsylvania Railroad. They are going back to a four track line, with north/south high speed tracks in the middle, and local/commutor/freight on the outside tracks. This is the way they used to handle express trains in the past.

Accela trains do speed up and slow down because they have to share the line with all that traffic, and because the old right of way has turns too sharp for high speed trains. In my town, the Accela train has to slow down to cross the Susquehanna over a bridge that was built in 1906.

Fix these problems and you've cleared the way for 180 to 200 mph trains.

And yes, the Eurostar is the model.

 

Again, it is really strage watching conservatives and people who don't travel make up reasons why we can't do something other people have been doing for years!

 

Railroad Retirement is the same as Social Security. Has been since 1979.

 

The conservatives I have engaged on this topic simply dont like it because Trains are a very european thing. Everyone knows Europeans are all nasty dirty socialists. And we CANNOT HAVE THAT HERE IN MURRRICA!!!

 

Much of our railway infrastructure is Victorian and in need of upgrading, otherwise our trains would be regularly doing 150mph. as it stands they're limited to 125mph.