Comments on: High-Speed Rail for the US, Finally!

By: Rob Heusdens

Rob Heusdens — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 08:03:26 +0000

@Sven
What are you talking about? This system has not even be built, not even to demonstrate the viability of such a technology, and I doubt it ever will.

By: Duude

Duude — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:30:54 +0000

High speed rail is among the most economically-challenged ideas of the past century. Projected costs are always dramatically understated, and projected passenger usage, based on previous government projections for Amtrak, are always dramatically overstated. Later, the fix will be greater subsidization of passenger tickets while applying more taxation on alternative forms of transportation. The end result of this, and other pie-in-the-sky ideas, is a lower standard of living for all.

By: Duude

Duude — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:30:00 +0000

By: Johng

Johng — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:54:27 +0000

I’m frustrated that we’re only just now kinda-sorta getting the ball rolling with this. We should have had this decades ago.

By: Johng

Johng — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:54:00 +0000

I’m frustrated that we’re only just now kinda-sorta getting the ball rolling with this. We should have had this decades ago.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:16:13 +0000

No wait, privatization is such a great idea, let’s first privatize our existing transportation infrastructure – roads and highways! It will be great. Every time you exit one highway and enter another, you’ll stop at a toll booth to pay the company that owns it. Oh, that’s inconvenient so we’ll add tracking systems to every car so the road companies can be paid fairly. Oh that’s too “big brother” so we’ll just give one big company a monopoly. But monopolies are famously inefficient and bloated. Damn, it’s almost like the government should do it!

Seriously, road transportation is already incredibly heavily subsidized. Asking private rail companies to compete with government-funded road transport and turn a profit is absurd.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:16:00 +0000

Seriously, road transportation is already incredibly heavily subsidized. Asking private rail companies to compete with government-funded road transport and turn a profit is absurd.

By: nb

nb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:55:58 +0000

All a great idea (and I really love it quite frankly) until you realize all the waste that will likely occur. I have little doubt the cost will be double that projected. The technology will likely be from overseas (as there is none for this in the US), providing lots of jobs in other countries. Finally, these will all likely operate at enormous losses (you could probably safely bet your home on it). America’s logistics are not the same as those in Europe.

I would have preferred that we removed some anti-trust laws and encouraged (via massive tax credits) rail companies, who already own huges tracts of right-of-ways, air-lines, and even bus companies, to work together to provide high speed rail where it makes sense.

This will just end up as another tax-payer subsidized rail that over time, due to politics, will become an increasingly bloated bureacracy (likely with many more SEIU members). Nope – figure out a way to get the private sector to do this, keep the government out of it.

If these are to be run by the government, it should be mandated they cannot run at a loss. Ideally, they’d at the very least be managed by contracted private companies, who would by law be dropped and banned from the next bidding if they didn’t meet financial operational criteria that would be frequently reviewed.

By: Jac

Jac — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 07:09:58 +0000

High speed rail outside maybe the eastern corridor will not meet any ridership projections. Once they are built, you will have to pay for them forever when they fail to meet expectations. But then again, that’s the way the bureaucrats want it.

By: Jac

Jac — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 07:09:00 +0000

By: Johng

Johng — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:35:54 +0000

I’m frustrated that we’re only just now kinda-sorta getting the ball rolling with this. We should have had this decades ago.

By: Johng

Johng — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:35:00 +0000

I’m frustrated that we’re only just now kinda-sorta getting the ball rolling with this. We should have had this decades ago.

By: Sven

Sven — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:01:42 +0000

Go on Youtube and search for SkyTran. That is the kind of system we should be building.

By: Sven

Sven — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:01:00 +0000

Go on Youtube and search for SkyTran. That is the kind of system we should be building.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:51:00 +0000

Your article states, “If these HSR projects come to fruition, the US may finally be level with Europe and China.” However, most of the corridors being discussed (with the exception of FL and CA) top out in speed at 110 mph. This is nowhere close to anything elsewhere. Japanese “Bullet” trains now run regularly at speeds up to 186 mph, in addition to the French TGV, Italian TAV, Spanish AVE, and German ICE among the fastest trains in the world. Again, only Florida and California’s trains would reach these speeds under the current plan. Simply, this plan will not put the US on par with these other countries.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:51:00 +0000