3 ms·

Flying is a lot more time spend on overhead.

by ingenuous2 9y ago

randyrand 9y ago
it doesnt have to be that way.
- ingenuous2 9y ago
  Agreed, but now we are talking political problems. And when we talk political problems, it's important to consider the base economic cost, all included.
valuearb 9y ago
Security overhead should be the same for high speed trains.
- serhei 9y ago
  God, I hope not. It makes zero sense to have TSA theater for high speed intercity trains but not local public transportation, because the latter has far greater passenger volumes. If terrorists wanted to cause mass chaos using a public transit system, they would go for local subway and commuter train lines.
  - candiodari 9y ago
    It's kind of amazing that there isn't more terrorism focusing on train lines, bridges and other infrastructure. That was the most effective way resistance against Germany during WWII worked. And to boot: some of it is easy. You just have to bend one rail segment. Manually (which is doable with basic DIY equipment), or explosively. If you're okay with trying 5 times a large boulder positioned between the tracks where it can't be pushed aside easily has a decent chance of derailing a train. And that is a disaster. The amount of stored power in a train's movement is more than enough to destroy it. When this sort of shit happens by accident, there's usually double, sometimes triple digits dead. Targeted, you could do more. Without a few particular train lines, US oil production would slow to a crawl. They are also far easier to destroy than to rebuild. Terror attack, and things go back to normal in a matter of hours. Sucks for the 5 people, but the economy is not going to be seriously impacted. With trains, and because there's a lot of cleanup, after which the entire line needs to be checked (and obviously not with a high speed train) a derailed train will take a week or two to fix, more on longer lines. It seems to me that disconnecting small cities in middle America from the train network and make coast-to-coast freight go a LOT slower wouldn't be out of the question for even a small organisation.

Flying is a lot more time spend on overhead.

randyrand 9y ago

it doesnt have to be that way.

ingenuous2 9y ago
Agreed, but now we are talking political problems. And when we talk political problems, it's important to consider the base economic cost, all included.

valuearb 9y ago

Security overhead should be the same for high speed trains.

serhei 9y ago
God, I hope not. It makes zero sense to have TSA theater for high speed intercity trains but not local public transportation, because the latter has far greater passenger volumes. If terrorists wanted to cause mass chaos using a public transit system, they would go for local subway and commuter train lines.
- candiodari 9y ago
  It's kind of amazing that there isn't more terrorism focusing on train lines, bridges and other infrastructure. That was the most effective way resistance against Germany during WWII worked. And to boot: some of it is easy. You just have to bend one rail segment. Manually (which is doable with basic DIY equipment), or explosively. If you're okay with trying 5 times a large boulder positioned between the tracks where it can't be pushed aside easily has a decent chance of derailing a train. And that is a disaster. The amount of stored power in a train's movement is more than enough to destroy it. When this sort of shit happens by accident, there's usually double, sometimes triple digits dead. Targeted, you could do more. Without a few particular train lines, US oil production would slow to a crawl. They are also far easier to destroy than to rebuild. Terror attack, and things go back to normal in a matter of hours. Sucks for the 5 people, but the economy is not going to be seriously impacted. With trains, and because there's a lot of cleanup, after which the entire line needs to be checked (and obviously not with a high speed train) a derailed train will take a week or two to fix, more on longer lines. It seems to me that disconnecting small cities in middle America from the train network and make coast-to-coast freight go a LOT slower wouldn't be out of the question for even a small organisation.