USA "High" speed Rail

[Mystic Force]

The long awaited report is finally out of what got approved. Now we know what $8 billion gets you. The only real high speed developments will be in Florida and California. California has already come up with a lot of money itself to do this. The florida scheme is interesting as it will link Tampa and Orlando with 86 miles of new track at 168mph. Eventually planned to be expanded to Miami too. The rest of the awards are to improve routes upto 110mph.

The US has freight lines that have passenger trains on it as opposed to Europe where we have mainly passenger railways with freight on it. I guess the thinking is that a series of incremental improvements will get further than spending on single large projects of new dedicated lines. I think this makes sense the way that funding is done in the US because otherwise nothing would actually happy.

Disappointed we didn't get our link to Iowa but not unexpected.

 

[SWT Driver]

As the saying goes, I'll believe it when I see it.

Personally having HSR in California is a big gamble with nature, particularly as California is on the San Andreas fault line and the "Big One" is well overdue!

That could be a High Speed disaster!

 

[jopsuk]

I think when the "Big One" hits it'll matter little if you're in any form of transport barring a plane that's in the air in California.

 

[Thomas I]

As the saying goes, I'll believe it when I see it.

Personally having HSR in California is a big gamble with nature, particularly as California is on the San Andreas fault line and the "Big One" is well overdue!

That could be a High Speed disaster!

But Japan is also an earthquake zone?
Was there already a High Speed disaster because there were already terrible earthquakes?

 

[SWT Driver]

No, but near ones & it's only a matter of time.

 

[2030720310]

I think when the "Big One" hits it'll matter little if you're in any form of transport barring a plane that's in the air in California.

Surely a train doing 186mph is more dangerous in an earthquake though than a car (say) doing 30mph?

 

[asylumxl]

Surely a train doing 186mph is more dangerous in an earthquake though than a car (say) doing 30mph?

I'd be inclined to agree. Especially given the high level design alot of HS lines seem to employ.

 

[subway156]

Once upon a time, the continental United States was inter-connect with itself from coast-to-coast. It was the fashion of rich and poor alike to go across the country that way over days of travel. Business deals were made. Families were made. Money was made. You could travel from city to city and state to state and ther was almost a 100% chance the train would go where you wanted to go. Now, even after all these years, many roads (right of way) exist and many are turned into biking and walking trails. Forget about the need for intermediate travel. I mean not in cars as individuals or quickly like a plane. But MASS movements of people off the highways, consuming much less fuel in realtive safety. That concept has been lost on this country's highways. High speed rail would definitely work here, but not in the places they want to start. They should ADD to existing lines that have gaps in them and re-connect the country. Not entirely, but where it's most obvious. This is the reason why I admire what I've seen just in Scotland where I have been several times. The rail system is 1,00% percent times better for travel than in this country. The subway systems are a separate entity here and that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about re-linking th Eastern Seaboard from Maine to Florida, which would create jobs, generate all kind of interest in other places and just be the right thing to do. It won't happen here if the greed controlled government can't screw us out of money.