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> Beyond that, the traffic densities present are not enough to justify high speed rail Remember that building transit infrastructure will also create new traff
by com2kid 12y ago
> Beyond that, the traffic densities present are not enough to justify high speed rail
Remember that building transit infrastructure will also create new traffic!
As an example, park and rides an hour out from Seattle are packed full of cars every day. Busses are then packed full of people every day heading into the city from as much as 40 miles out.
IMHO what would be more interesting would be Vancouver BC --> Bellingham --> Midway to Seattle --> Seattle --> Tacoma --> Portland
Of course going across the boarder makes this impractical. :(
- mahyarm 12y agoSo you mean the Amtrak Cascades Route? http://www.amtrak.com/cascades-train http://www.amtrak.com/cascades-train
- com2kid 12y agoBump that up by a few hundred miles per hour and it'd be worthwhile. :) 80MPH doesn't save that much time!
- brightsize 12y agoWhat would be interesting to me would be a Seattle<->Spokane HS line. Maybe it could run along the Empire Builder route? The cities are separated by around 280 miles using I-90 and flights take around an hour tarmac-to-tarmac. If you flew tomorrow the flight would cost around $200 RT. But you have to fly via Seatac which isn't exactly convenient if you're going to the city. The Amtrak station is right downtown in both cities. Such a connection could bring some much-needed economic development to Spokane, and might even turn it into a bedroom community of Seattle for some people - the economics might work out considering that a $1M house in Seattle might run you $200K here.
- Aloha 12y agoagain, I'd add that post PDX-SEA - You could call the whole thing the Cascadia Corridor, and eventually take it as far south as medford.
- Aloha 12y agoPoints north of seattle would be added later, after the initial pdx leg - I dont consider the border to be a huge issue. I dont think you can add enough traffic by going cross country, not to Chicago to tie to the eastern network.