Reply With QuoteL.A. to Vegas in an hour FTW!!
Edit:
and you can already be drunk when you get there!!
Obama unveils high-speed passenger rail plan
very interestingWASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama unveiled his administration's blueprint for a new national network of high-speed passenger rail lines Thursday, saying such an investment is necessary to reduce traffic congestion, cut dependence on foreign oil and improve the environment.
President Obama, with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, called for clean, efficient travel Thursday.
The president's plan identifies 10 potential high-speed intercity corridors for federal funding, including California, the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, the Southeast, the Gulf Coast, Pennsylvania, Florida, New York and New England.
It also highlights potential improvements in the heavily traveled Northeast Corridor running from Washington to Boston, Massachusetts.
Each of the corridors identified by the president's report are between 100 and 600 miles long. The blueprint envisions some trains traveling at top speeds of over 150 mph.
Federal grants would also be directed toward separate individual rail projects that are deemed "ready to go," with preliminary engineering and environmental work already completed.
"My high-speed rail proposal will lead to innovations that change the way we travel in America. We must start developing clean, energy-efficient transportation that will define our regions for centuries to come," Obama said at an event near the White House.
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The president cited the success of high-speed rail in European countries such as France and Spain as a positive example for the United States.
His plan would be funded in part through the recently passed $787 billion stimulus plan, which includes a total of $8 billion for improvements in rail service. Obama has also proposed a separate five-year, $5 billion investment in high-speed rail as part of the administration's suggested fiscal year 2010 budget.
"We're going to make travel in this country leaner and a whole lot cleaner," said Vice President Joe Biden, speaking before Obama.
The president spoke one day after the governors of eight Midwestern states sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood requesting stimulus funds for the construction of a regional network of faster passenger rail lines.
The city of Chicago, Illinois, would be the hub of the proposed Midwest Regional Rail System, which would stretch to Madison, Wisconsin, in the Northwest; St. Louis, Missouri, in the South; and Detroit, Michigan, in the East.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama pledged to support a national network of faster passenger trains. The administration has already dedicated $1.3 billion in federal funding for Amtrak.
The money for the rail service, which carried almost 29 million passengers last year, will go primarily to infrastructure repair and improvement
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/16/obama.rail/index.html
For the California High speed rail network, they have to put in new tracks, bridges in all the routes, they cannot use the freight lines because one, they are owned buy the Railway like UP and BNSF, also the lines are not high speed rail (max speed about 75-80MPH). Plus to run a efficient timetable without major delays cannot share with freight.
Now they have a some high speed lines already running in the USA like boston to DC, but add a Northwestern line, I don't know where there will run the rails, are they going to electrify the line, or run diesel-electric. This will be interesting to see.
It will create lots and lots of jobs, in building, maintaining and operations.
But to be successful then the cities serviced by train will need to have terminal close by for BUS/lightrail/METRO currently most cities don't like to mix the passenger trains and there own public transport.
L.A. to Vegas in an hour FTW!!
Edit:
and you can already be drunk when you get there!!
Last edited by Abolith; 04-17-2009 at 02:38 AM.
I think it's a good goddamned idea. Trains are cool.
I can't see how it is supposed to work. If you're lucky, you could maybe carve out regional lines as the article mentioned. There is no way you could connect them all.
So where does the right of way come from? Most railroads are operating at capacity right now and freight railroad companies are not obligated to drop their pants for this project and magically give up right of way or alter traffic patterns.
How do you build a new route if you can't magically take over and upgrade an old one? This is not the wild west. Building a new railroad line by acquiring land over large distances seems less than plausible these days. It could somehow be done were you to magically acquire all the old bike paths that are former rights of way, but that's not going to happen. Tons of little towns all over the country make money off those things.
This plan can't be all it's cracked up to be. If it's anything real that's going to happen, it's going to be scaled down and small-time and I highly doubt the trains are going to end up whipping down the tracks at 150 mph with any regularity.
We had made up our minds about passenger rail travel in this country long ago. As far back as 50-60 years ago they had commercial passenger trains going 90-100 mph on some routes. We abandoned this a long time ago as not commercially viable and now we're supposed to make this work with fed money as a public enterprise?
Amen, I love trains, I take the kids to see them working the yard every week, we park near the crossing, so when the train goes by, with the windows down we get honked at. My daughter has named all the passenger trains that go though as well.Originally Posted by California Joe
Sure great idea. I would love to be able to go from DC to FL in 8-10 hours. Would take that before an airplane.
But just the California options are estimated at $40 BILLION!!! With all the money wasted in bailing out NY City investment banks, where is the dough going to come from?
The only option I see is they build the new line next to existing freight lines, this is what they are planning in California, but the down side is road crossing will probably have to go under the rails or the rails get raised above the road (way more expensive).
Trains are great, and i like the idea of people movers that are more effective. But with current trends where an AMTRACK ticket cost about the same as a flight i hope that this plan has a better business plan.
This would be great.
plus the big delays on amtrak, they need their own rails.
It won't happen. Too many costs, too many NIMBY concerns and pressure groups, too many distracting external factors.
That's what I thought. I know from riding the AVE (Spanish high speed) they raised the roadbed, put in bridges and chained off the right of way so you just can't be like Joe High School and walk out on to the tracks.
That's a good point - I'm sure it doesn't have a "business plan" per se. They might have unrealistic forecasts based on years of studies which assume the "field of Dreams" idea that if you build it, they will come. It's public transport and the undertaking is thought of as a public good, regardless of whether or not it's going to work.
could happen if they do what they did in Europe and Nationalize the railways, even though the railways been sold back into private sector, it what got them to function like they do. I would not want to see that though.
Quit harshing our buzz Ronnie!!!
I would like to be able to take a bullet train to vegas...
You always assume the drive to vegas from LA will be fear and loathing-esqe open road.... until you're bumper to bumper in the heat on the 15
Rail travel in the states is never gonna be on the level of europe though, the distances are just too vast
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