Comments on: Medium-speed rail

By: CGHill

CGHill — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:03:20 +0000

There is now a proposal [pdf] for a genuinely high-speed rail link (220 mph seems high enough to qualify, if they can pull it off) between Chicago and St. Louis.

By: Dick Stanley

Dick Stanley — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:21:36 +0000

Freight rails are, indeed, the problem. Since all the American rails are battered by freight cars every day, the passenger trains wouldn’t dare push it up to “high speed.”

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:05:29 +0000

Oh, that drive time for I-55? Only if there’s no construction going on. Which, when I lived in Illinois, was pretty much only in the wintertime, which was also when the weather was often bad enough that you couldn’t go the full 65 mph. But whatever.

I spent an entire summer (1998) driving all over Illinois. Everything in Illinois (at least everything I needed to see) is at least 2 hours from everything else.

By: Lisa Paul

Lisa Paul — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:23:52 +0000

When high-roller Willie Brown was our Mayor, he took a AAA tour to Paris to investigate…public toilet systems.

Okay, so he got a fully paid Paris vacation on our dime. But San Francisco eventually got a full complement of JC Decaux high-tech French outdoor toilets. So Brown says we have to say we got value for our money.

By: Brian J.

Brian J. — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:13:04 +0000

It’s worse if you need to take a connection. By train, with layover, St. Louis to Milwaukee used to take me about 10 hours. It’s 5.5 to drive it according to actual speeds and not Google map estimations.

By: Jeffro

Jeffro — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:31:06 +0000

HSR won’t happen until it’s separated from freight rails.

By: CGHill

CGHill — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:38:56 +0000

None of that matters. It’s European, and Europe is where they didn’t invent either McDonald’s or Walmart, so it must be good.

Me, I don’t object to congressional junkets to Ibiza and Paris; what I object to is the fact that the bastards actually come back.

By: Akaky

Akaky — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:36:40 +0000

Hasn’t anybody noticed that the US is considerably larger than Europe is? I mean, think about it for a minute. All those super fast rail lines connect city to city and the cities are, by American standards, fairly close to one another. There’s no Moscow to Lisbon bullet train, or even a Paris to Warsaw one, as far as I know. You think there might be a reason for that? As to the question of allowing Amtrak to operate a railroad, we all know better than that, dont we? Or, at least, we should.

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:20:38 +0000

Well, yes, but he apparently had other reasons to go there. Too bad for him (but not for us) that he couldn’t dissemble for a few more days and claim he was on some fact-finding junket.

By: CGHill

CGHill — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:16:53 +0000

They certainly don't have it in Argentina.

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:12:23 +0000

You know, I wonder, if high-speed rail was a feature of Lower Armpit* (rather than Europe), if our representatives would be so eager to take trips there to view it.

(*that’s the most family friendly version of “an undesirable place to be” that I can come up with at this time. The other ones I know have initials like BFE…)