3 ms·

That's a good point, but airplane transfers are pretty bad in terms of time efficiency. Every transfer adds at least another 1.5~2 hours to your journey, and is

That's a good point, but airplane transfers are pretty bad in terms of time efficiency. Every transfer adds at least another 1.5~2 hours to your journey, and is very uncomfortable because you need to get out and switch airplanes. For your example, NYC to Miami, the distance is only around 1200 miles in total. Once you add in the extra time taken to travel by airplane and extra hours to make the transfer, the total time taken for the trip easily reaches 7 hours. And those are not a very comfortable 7 hours, with many stops, a lot of waiting in lines, etc. A high speed train could make that same trip in 6 hours, and it would be 6 hours you can spend working in relative comfort. I know which option I would heavily prefer.

sokoloff 6y ago
How long until you realistically believe we could have actual track in place allowing a 6-hour city-center to city-center NYC to Miami journey? I think the answer is "not in the next 50 years".
- mytherin 6y ago
  This attitude is very common in the US, and it surprises me. The US has done magnificent things. When did the US become a country that couldn't, rather than a country that could? Building a rail network of that size is also not unprecedented. China is the same size as the US, and is a country with much fewer financial resources. They started construction on their high-speed rail network in 2006, and now that network covers almost half their country. Another interesting thing I found, apparently they are now prototyping trains that run at 400 mph [1], which is 75% of the speed of a passenger airplane. I wager we will see trains that are as fast as airplanes long before we see functional sustainable airplanes. [1] https://asiatimes.com/2019/05/chinas-600km-h-train-set-for-2020-test-run/ https://asiatimes.com/2019/05/chinas-600km-h-train-set-for-2...
  - sokoloff 6y ago
    Well, for the NYC to DC corridor, that passes through some of the most built-up areas of the country and someone already owns all of that land. Some of the best land for placing a rail network there already is owned by freight lines and has rail installed. It's not that hard nor expensive to put 400 miles of new rail across Nebraska. It's quite a bit harder and much, much more expensive to buy all the land needed to put 400 miles of new rail between DC and NYC.

sokoloff 6y ago

How long until you realistically believe we could have actual track in place allowing a 6-hour city-center to city-center NYC to Miami journey? I think the answer is "not in the next 50 years".

mytherin 6y ago
This attitude is very common in the US, and it surprises me. The US has done magnificent things. When did the US become a country that couldn't, rather than a country that could? Building a rail network of that size is also not unprecedented. China is the same size as the US, and is a country with much fewer financial resources. They started construction on their high-speed rail network in 2006, and now that network covers almost half their country. Another interesting thing I found, apparently they are now prototyping trains that run at 400 mph [1], which is 75% of the speed of a passenger airplane. I wager we will see trains that are as fast as airplanes long before we see functional sustainable airplanes. [1] https://asiatimes.com/2019/05/chinas-600km-h-train-set-for-2020-test-run/ https://asiatimes.com/2019/05/chinas-600km-h-train-set-for-2...
- sokoloff 6y ago
  Well, for the NYC to DC corridor, that passes through some of the most built-up areas of the country and someone already owns all of that land. Some of the best land for placing a rail network there already is owned by freight lines and has rail installed. It's not that hard nor expensive to put 400 miles of new rail across Nebraska. It's quite a bit harder and much, much more expensive to buy all the land needed to put 400 miles of new rail between DC and NYC.