Tommie Hu$tle
Member
Will congestion get to the point in our lifetime where the US will start to look at them as viable?
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Bullet trains - will the US ever see them
- Thread starter Tommie Hu$tle
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Aruarian Reflection
Chauffeur de la gdlk
This summer is my first time period I've used public transportation in my life, and I must say that it's a lot better than I expected. The Washington DC metro is tops. So the current metro system seems to be working pretty well, I don't know what the benefits are of converting to a shinkansen.
SteveMeister
Hang out with Steve.
Well, the Amtrak Acela is SORT of like a bullet train. When it's running, anyway. 150MPH between Washington, New York City and Boston. I think it's supposed to start up again this Summer.
reggieandTFE
Member
No, because Americans are rugged individualists who pull can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and public transportation is for godless commies.
Tommie Hu$tle
Member
I'm wondering if it could even be done in places like Atlanta where the infrastructure is SO freaking bad you would literally have to destroy the city and rebuild it in block format to make it even feasable (but that would clear up the traffic in itself).
The reason I was asking is because I was in Atlanta for vacation before I came back to Iraq and on the news on Sunday they had a SUNDAY traffic report. Isn't that nuts to where you need traffic reports 24/7?
The reason I was asking is because I was in Atlanta for vacation before I came back to Iraq and on the news on Sunday they had a SUNDAY traffic report. Isn't that nuts to where you need traffic reports 24/7?
The US population will not consider alternate forms of transportation in any form until all oil is burned from the planet.
The idea of having centralized, downtown areas has fallen since the 1900's and suburbia continues to expand nationwide as if everyone will have cars to use for their hour transits to work until the end of time.
The idea of having centralized, downtown areas has fallen since the 1900's and suburbia continues to expand nationwide as if everyone will have cars to use for their hour transits to work until the end of time.
I would (almost) sell my car if a train system was implemented throughout the US. I have much better things to do with my transit time than drive: read, listen to music, study, join the "250 mph club" with my GF, enjoy a coffee, etc.
Seriously, though--I would love to be able to take a bullet train from Oklahoma City to Dallas--it would take about half the time, I would save money, plus I can sleep/read/relax. I'm looking forward to living in a major city when I graduate, at least Boston and NY have subways.
Seriously, though--I would love to be able to take a bullet train from Oklahoma City to Dallas--it would take about half the time, I would save money, plus I can sleep/read/relax. I'm looking forward to living in a major city when I graduate, at least Boston and NY have subways.
dog$ said:
Actually, as the oil starts to diminish, Rail will be the most efficient means of travel. Rail systems around the world will probably start getting long overdue overhauls in anticipation for a drop in private transport when oil prices begin to rise too high for the average joe.
Japan's bullet train system works because of its geography, high population density and the size of the country.
If the USA is the size of California, with 300 million people, the economics of supporting a bullet train system would be in much stronger favor. The fact that most of the country is still underpopulated, will mean that the rail system will be most concentrated in the upper east coast.
The rail system is pretty good in the NY, NJ, DC area, but out west, things are different, and that's because of the space afforded to people.
If the USA is the size of California, with 300 million people, the economics of supporting a bullet train system would be in much stronger favor. The fact that most of the country is still underpopulated, will mean that the rail system will be most concentrated in the upper east coast.
The rail system is pretty good in the NY, NJ, DC area, but out west, things are different, and that's because of the space afforded to people.
Why waste our time with the ol' railroad when we've got our magnificent flying machines?
Seriously, though, the Shinkansen rocks and bullet train transportation is so much easier and more relaxing than flight. The problem is that we're just too damn spread out. You could make bullet train systems viable on the east and west coasts, but then you have the problem of having to take out even more land from already crowded areas to make paths for new rail lines.
Between oil lobbies, problems of population density and development, and good old American hubris, it will never happen.
Seriously, though, the Shinkansen rocks and bullet train transportation is so much easier and more relaxing than flight. The problem is that we're just too damn spread out. You could make bullet train systems viable on the east and west coasts, but then you have the problem of having to take out even more land from already crowded areas to make paths for new rail lines.
Between oil lobbies, problems of population density and development, and good old American hubris, it will never happen.
MetatronM said:
Train system is already working fine in one part of the USA, it's just not applicable out west in places like Montana where there's hardly anyone or in car happy California.
Really, I have to say this, no offense to anyone. I hate Southern California. Too many cars, to polluted.
Phoenix
Member
Deku said:
Yep, and that's one of the things that's hurting Amtrak. The US is huge and the rail lines are huge. Its barely economical to run the trains as they are now because it takes forever to get most places on them. Heaven forbid you need to go cast to coast - that a difference of DAYS in travel.
Phoenix said:
Yes. It takes about a day to travel the length of Japan from south to North by bullet train. Many stops of course, which probably won't be an issue in the prarie states. West-East length of the continental USA is probably much greater than the North South Distance of Japan.
I haven't done the math on that, just a guess.
P.S. of course, there's also the problem of the width of the USA. If a line starts in New York, does it go down south first to the Carolinas before heading west? or do you support several lines from each major east coast population center. It's too complicated :lol
Phoenix said:
Not only are the US rail lines huge but they are in a shitty state... if we can't even keep the Acela up(bad brakes? wtf?) and running how the hell are we going to have bullet trains?
My take? Not gonna happen anytime soon... if ever.
Vinzer Deling
Banned
Won't ever use public transportation until they invent teleporting machines
Deku said:
For what it's worth, the bay area's public transportation is (pretty) good. The commuter rail system has a pretty extensive reach, augmented by CalTrain; San Francisco's subway system, while certainly not as extensive as New York's, does a...reasonable job. If that can't get you where you need to go, the cable cars, street cars, or busses certainly can. In fact, I'd go so far as to argue that San Francisco's probably the only city in California where you can get away with not owning a car.
MassiveAttack
Banned
SteveMeister said:
The Acela (built under a consortium of Bombardier and Alstom) has been mostly a disaster on US rails. The train never reaches 150MPH except for a one tiny stretch of track between New York and Boston and rarely runs consistently over 100MPH due to poor physical rail conditions. The discovery of cracks in the breaking systems of the trains this year demonstrates that US rail systems need a massive overhaul before they are anything more than the laughing stock of European and Japanese rail engineers.
The new bullet train in Japan that is currently undergoing test runs can reach speeds in excess of 260MPH on current rail lines.
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Actually you have quite a few bullet trains over Europe. Even in a "small" country like Spain we have some AVE trains that work quite awesome, specially when compared against the shitty average machines. The newest AVE 102 "Pato" (duck) tops 350km/h - 217mph and most Talgo lines are quite fast too. Real speeds are slower because of rail conditions, obviously.Deku said:
Here's the one that makes the Madrid-Lleida route.
France's TGV trains are old, but very fast too. Of course most of these trains are only used to communicate big cities as they are not practical for small towns, but they are a good example of high speed railways in smaller countries.
I was a little train freak when I was a child
I think Americans would rather walk over the tops of gridlocked cars than ride public transporation. Somehow we've gotten it into our heads that only nobodies ride the bus or the subway (cities such as NYC, DC and Chicago not included).
I for one am of the mind to start using trains to move through California. The last time I drove to San Diego I sat through two hours of traffic trying to get through Orange County. I could have been sitting on a train, watching Kill Bill on my PSP.
I for one am of the mind to start using trains to move through California. The last time I drove to San Diego I sat through two hours of traffic trying to get through Orange County. I could have been sitting on a train, watching Kill Bill on my PSP.
Mashing said:
because of zoning laws (or lack thereof), most Texas cities suffer from horrible urban sprawl, thus making the creation of an effective mass transportation system nearly impossible. This is also a major reason you couldn't have good public transportation in cities like Atlanta - they problem is so massive that it's hard to figure out how to approach it correctly.
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
I thought you had pretty good lines and decent subways for short routes, now I'm quite confused. If nothing goes wrong again I'll be @ E3 next year with some workmates so I'd like to know how's LA's public transportation. How is it?
Funky Papa said:
We have public transportation in LA?
The LA Times has done a series in the past, where two Times employees try to get to the same destination, one using public transportation, the other using a car. The car has won almost every time, often by a large margin. The only time the car was slower was going from LA to San Francisco.
Cooper said:
The LA public transportation system is fine as long as you're willing to wait forever to get anywhere.
Example: Right now I'm living near USC. Going to Hollywood via the Metro Rapid/Rail takes me on a good day half an hour and on a bad day could take over an hour easily.
SteveMeister
Hang out with Steve.
callous said:
Think about it though. Your odds of being in a train wreck are much higher than being in a plane crash. Because a train is dependent upon hundreds of miles of track, not to mention the mechanics of the engine(s) and all the cars, and is vulnerable to hazards on the tracks. Basically there's a lot more that can go wrong. The biggest difference is that when something does go wrong on a plane, the results are almost always fatally catastrophic -- but there's less to go wrong.
Are there any current plans to construct "bullet trains" in the near future in the US?
You idiots directing your anger at me should invenst your time writing your governors to ask them why in 2005 we're still stuck in traffic for 10 hours a day breathing methanol.
California for instance, has the world's 5th largest economy, yet we have no decent rail system, Amtrak is almost bankrupt, and our roads are in worse shape then Mexico's. What happened to the proposed bullet train from LA to Vegas? Our subway is a joke, and our traffic is almost suicide inducing.
You idiots directing your anger at me should invenst your time writing your governors to ask them why in 2005 we're still stuck in traffic for 10 hours a day breathing methanol.
California for instance, has the world's 5th largest economy, yet we have no decent rail system, Amtrak is almost bankrupt, and our roads are in worse shape then Mexico's. What happened to the proposed bullet train from LA to Vegas? Our subway is a joke, and our traffic is almost suicide inducing.
fennec fox
ferrets ferrets ferrets ferrets FERRETS!!!
I've been in about 500 near-misses in my car since moving to Houston. I'm definitely not worried about my "odds" on a train.
Lil' Dice said:
Actually, you should do a little research yourself into the feasibility of building high speed trains in the US. Economically it isn't feasible in the US, for a huge number of reasons (not the least of which is cultural, but also include the other reasons listed above such as the track conditions and distances high speed trains would have to cover compared to their European and Japanese counterparts). But of course, since you came into this thread calling everyone an "idiot", you probably already knew that, didn't you?
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