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It really is a tough problem I think. If you put in high speed rail from my small town in the Sierras down to a nice beach, I'd be all over it. As you probabl
by OneEyedRobot 5y ago
It really is a tough problem I think.
If you put in high speed rail from my small town in the Sierras down to a nice beach, I'd be all over it. As you probably know, there's really not much in the way of point to point mass transit needed. Vacations are well served by air and car, commutes are everywhere to everywhere within urban and suburban areas.
In addition, there's the personal security angle. The US ain't Japan.
I figure if people wanted mass transit to be a thing, they'd start by heavily subsidizing comfortable buses. Super scalable, pretty quick, relatively cheap.
- pornel 5y agoNoooo, buses are awful. Why would you want to travel even slower in even more cramped space? 8 hours on a bus when it could have been 2 hours on a train with a restaurant? Train carriages are wider, taller, and can be much much longer, so you can have plenty of space. It's like a business class flight, but for economy price and arriving in the city center. Even "slow" trains can travel at speeds exceeding highway speed limits. In many European countries rail networks are better built than highway networks, so you can take a train from some Shitshire village to a nice beach.
- devilbunny 5y agoLuxury buses are a thing. Vonlane in Texas is a great example. Downtown to downtown, reasonably fast, and more space than a business-class air seat. The whole coach only has 22 seats, and charter rates - to the extent that I can find information on them - are very reasonable. I found one Houston Chronicle article saying that a charter from Houston to Rosemary Beach, Florida - just over 600 miles/1000 km each way - was $6600 round trip. That includes driver and attendant. For $300 per person, very reasonable. Or for group outings for sporting events.