Is America's quest for high-speed trains finally picking up steam?::New projects in California, Texas, and Florida are a sign that the United States is finally getting serious about modernizing its commuter railway system.

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[–] 81 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

At least with younger folk yeah. Only people that hate trains are boomers and weirdos who think gasoline is the second manliest thing other than trump. It’s a huge project though, don’t know if I’ll ever live to see New York connected to Texas by high speed rail

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Only people that hate trains are boomers and weirdos who think gasoline is the second manliest thing other than trump.

    Mass transit has also burned quite a few people with reliability. The train not showing up on time was regular enough I had to stop using it to go to work. There is only so many times you can be late to work before it becomes your fault for not fixing the issue; in my case, by no longer taking the train and driving instead.

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  • [+] 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)
  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago

    The problem is that Amtrak doesn't own most or even any of those rails, instead having to pay for the right to use them. The reason why this is a problem is that it's hard to upgrade rails to high speed when you don't own them. Amtrak trains also often have to stop and give passage to freight trains, which is unlike what you'd see in Japan where passenger trains are on their own, dedicated rails.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Flying is such a miserable experience from start to finish that I would opt for rail every time if it was viable, even if it took 3-4 times as long.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The problem today is that it's an order of magnitude longer. Chicago to LA by airplane is 4 hours. Chicago to LA via Amtrak is about 56 hours. I don't know that high speed rail is going to fix that problem, sure it might get it down some, but even a 24 hour train is six times longer than flying.

    I say this as someone that takes Amtrak at every opportunity because I enjoy trains and want to see them become viable for more people.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    You’re looking at it from a coast to coast perspective when it should really be an intra-state one.

    People aren’t regularly traveling from Chicago to La on a daily basis, even by plane. They are traveling within the same state or to nearby states instead.

    Dallas-Houston, SF-LA, Miami-Orlando are all distances that people have to drive/fly to on a daily basis that could easily be replaced by hsr.

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  • [–] 28 points 2 years ago (23 children)

    It still blows my mind that there's only about 50 miles of "high speed" (greater than 125mph) transit in the US, and that's only in a small pocket in tbe Northeast. For reference, the EU has over 2,200 mi of high speed rail in half the physical size running at up to 186mph.

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    [–] 27 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    They better fucking not be running on steam...

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    Steam engines are eco-friendly. Coal in, water vapor out. Voila 😅

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    [–] 23 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    If the article title asks a question, the answer is always NO.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I’ve been hearing these stories for decades. I won’t hold my breath.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    America well adopt high speed trains en masse the year Linux becomes mainstream

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago

    If you have to ask, the answer is no

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  • [+] 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)
    [–] 14 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I'd love to see the US fully mapped out with true highspeed rail, but part of the problem is the amount of time off work Americans have. We're guaranteed nothing, and a pretty good portion of us have to use vacation time for sick days. A travel option that takes longer isn't going to take off here because of that. People won't spend an extra day travelling, changing trains, et cetera, when their entire vacation is a 3 day weekend so that they only have to use one vacation day in case they have to take their kid to the doctor 4 months later.

    Not even close to arguing against the trains, just saying that we need to change some other shit, too. We need better labor laws that couple with things like forced caps on flights, less subsidiaries for airlines, the tracks being nationalized, priority given to Amtrak on certain lines, and better accessibility on the trains themselves.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago*

    Amtrak already has the legal right of way on pretty much all lines it operates on, that's not the issue. The issue is that the cargo companies abuse the shit outta loopholes letting them go ahead anyways by having cargo trains so long that they cannot go onto bypass tracks, forcing Amtrak trains to wait for the cargo train to fully pass before it can continue despite Amtrak having the legal right of way.

    It's basically the same thing that happens with 16 wheelers vs pedestrians. A pedestrian might have the legal right of way when the crosswalk signal is going, but that doesn't matter because that 16 wheeler isn't gonna stop in time to avoid hitting them when it's going at 40MPH. Physics beats laws every time.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    I'd argue that it could be used as a more cost effective transport for businesses as well as government employees that need to travel on a regular basis. If time isnt an issue, it could be pretty viable.

    Aside from that, retired folks would also be a good market for this. Thats all i got tho. I absolutely agree we need some change to labor laws. We work to live, not live to work.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago

    Love to see it but can't help but be disappointed bigger projects aren't planned from Chicago. I don't understand why it will take me twice as long to take the train to New Orleans than drive or why there is only a single running east per day.

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  • [+] 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 months ago)
    [–] 9 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    What happened to hyperloop? 🤣 🤣

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    [–] 7 points 2 years ago

    We have a newish commuter rail and surface line here. My only complaints are that it doesn't go enough places, and I want it to have road priority for both the elevated lines and the smaller, surface lines. Both should get dedicated roads where all cars must wait until it passes (save for emergency vehicles, of course).

    My other complaint is that our politicians don't have the balls to build an ultra high speed network from southern California to Vancouver, BC, which is what we need. We should just have big signs advertising a state owned 250+ mph train line up and down gridlocked i5 and state/provincial routes nearby. Then, it would get voter approval immediately. Preferably with QR codes attached to the signs to sign your name up on the proposal or something.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago

    I won't hold my breathe until there is major progress, but all these plans will get thrown in the trash if Republicans regain the White House and if Democrats don't either take control of Congress or at least make gains. Republicans have been trying to kill of Amtrak and any US rail improvements for decades now.

    Like with seemingly everything else, if Republicans are involved, they will stubbornly try to hold us back come hell or high water.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    Damn the ending makes it sound like Dr. Frankenstein is zapping his monster with a little bit of electricity from his AA battery.

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