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Who is suggesting building high speed rail from Chicago to LA? Why would you pick that particular example? It takes even longer to drive, and yet we have built
by skywhopper 8y ago
Who is suggesting building high speed rail from Chicago to LA? Why would you pick that particular example? It takes even longer to drive, and yet we have built multiple highway routes that connect LA and Chicago.
Instead of picking dumb examples to discredit the idea, how about looking at obviously good places: The entire East coast from Boston to Miami would be a good corridor to build in. Or start in Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, and build links to cities between 200 and 500 miles away, where taking a high-speed train would be faster than either driving or flying, and extend from there. Eventually you will have a network that can take you from Chicago to LA, even if that's not the sweet spot for the type of transport. And honestly, a 10 hour train ride will take only 3-4 hours longer than the equivalent flight, once you factor in the huge overhead of time involved in flying.
- soheil 8y agoIt's actually a helpful example to support the conclusion. Why would the author provide a "better" example that supports his/her idea less? LA to Chicago may not be a commonly travelled route nor one that would lend itself to train travel best, but the author's point still stands, which is in the US on average distances between major cities are much longer than any individual country in Europe, hence the immense cost required to build infrastructure for trains. We might have bit the bullet and done it with highways back in the day for whatever reason, today the reasoning for doing the same thing may not apply and the cost unjustified.
- xg15 8y ago> We might have bit the bullet and done it with highways back in the day for whatever reason, today the reasoning for doing the same thing may not apply and the cost unjustified. So the rational, cost-effective solution would have been not to have any connection at all?
- reindeerer 8y ago> in the US on average distances between major cities are much longer than any individual country in Europe Have you done the math ? Split US into west coast and east coast populuous regions, and nope, not the case. Also, don't let yourself be fooled by the Mercator projection: https://thetruesize.com https://thetruesize.com
- melling 8y agoThe author’s point does not stand. No one is saying build high-speed rail between cities that are extremely far apart. Find the handful of places where it does make sense then build there. If it only makes sense in 4 locations then build there. You can safely ignore the other 20 locations.
- soheil 8y agoThen there is the argument why should the rest of the country pay for something that will only be used in the coasts or densely populated areas?
- melling 8y ago1. Who said they would? 2. Also, it appears that many states already get a lot more than they contribute. That subsidy probably isn’t going in the direction you think it is. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/which-states-are-givers-and-which-are-takers/361668/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/which-s...
- soheil 8y ago> 1. Who said they would? That's my question. > 2. Also, it appears that many states already get a lot more than they contribute. That subsidy probably isn’t going in the direction you think it is. Sure, I'm not arguing that the distribution of federal money is 100% fair.
- melling 8y ago“Then there is the argument why should the rest of the country pay for something that will only be used in the coasts or densely populated areas?” This isn’t a real question. You’re making up a reason that you haven’t proven exists. There is no funded HSR outside of California.
- soheil 8y ago
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]