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High Speed Rail


gs3

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Cars efficient? No. I will grant that cars may be more convenient than high-speed rail, but they are not more efficient. I will also grant that the suburban system of living we have created is indeed dependent upon the automobile. It will take much time and thought to undo the damage we have done in creating an unfortunate and unsustainable mode of living. For the moment, only something truly cataclysmic would separate people from their cars. There's little use in complaining about a fait accompli. We made our asphalt beds and now we must lie in them. Planning for a future in which we would not be so tethered is another matter. Why not plan for a better tomorrow?

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As a method of transportation the automobile is the most resource hungry modes of transportation out there, and the associated costs that come from everything that supports it and is supported by it are simply unimaginable. A trip to Japan and Europe will show an understanding of this.

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Cars efficient? No. I will grant that cars may be more convenient than high-speed rail, but they are not more efficient. I will also grant that the suburban system of living we have created is indeed dependent upon the automobile. It will take much time and thought to undo the damage we have done in creating an unfortunate and unsustainable mode of living. For the moment, only something truly cataclysmic would separate people from their cars. There's little use in complaining about a fait accompli. We made our asphalt beds and now we must lie in them. Planning for a future in which we would not be so tethered is another matter. Why not plan for a better tomorrow?
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Honestly, I don't see the high speed in the near future at all. They can't even get up the money to fix the corridor up here, and in NJ and NY, the corridor has major power issues, with last year the power failing three times. Don't get me wrong, I'll be first in line to buy an Acela ticket to somewhere down south, conversely, by the time the government decides to do something about it, and either build it out, or fund it, or something, it will be too late.

As it stands from what I've read, the Northeast Corridor is looking to expand up the I-91 corridor, from New Haven, CT to Springfield, MA. They just re-electrified the line from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, PA, and the southern end might be electrified to Richmond, VA. We might be ready for it now, but it won't happen for at least another 20 years. It's just because of politics, and we might be 1000 miles apart, but we're all in this boat together.

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Honestly, I don't see the high speed in the near future at all. They can't even get up the money to fix the corridor up here, and in NJ and NY, the corridor has major power issues, with last year the power failing three times. Don't get me wrong, I'll be first in line to buy an Acela ticket to somewhere down south, conversely, by the time the government decides to do something about it, and either build it out, or fund it, or something, it will be too late.

As it stands from what I've read, the Northeast Corridor is looking to expand up the I-91 corridor, from New Haven, CT to Springfield, MA. They just re-electrified the line from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, PA, and the southern end might be electrified to Richmond, VA. We might be ready for it now, but it won't happen for at least another 20 years. It's just because of politics, and we might be 1000 miles apart, but we're all in this boat together.

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It's really up to all of us who want to change this country and I have a gut feeling that change is upon us. Perhaps this will be the unintended legacy of the Bush Administration: to make such poor decisions that it forces the nation to dive head-long toward massive change.
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The time for change is now. Who will lead us there? Hillary? Forget it. Maybe Bill Richardson has the capability to lead the nation out of petromania. I'm befuddled at the current slate of presidential candidates and prospective ones. Can't we do better? Isn't anyone able to lead us out of Petroland?

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High-speed rail in the Southeast isn't going to be built anytime soon. South Carolina hasn't even gone as far as North Carolina, in buying a bunch of railcars from the 1950s to have low-speed rail in addition to existing Amtrak services.

President Bush is pretty bad about Amtrak but it's not just his administration that's causing this; Bush Sr. was responsible for getting the money to electrify the New Haven-Boston part of the Northeast Corridor, which was the largest step towards expanded high speed rail in a long time, and then pretty much nothing happened under Clinton, and the SC DOT isn't lifting a finger to help build high speed rail.

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The time for change is now. Who will lead us there? Hillary? Forget it. Maybe Bill Richardson has the capability to lead the nation out of petromania. I'm befuddled at the current slate of presidential candidates and prospective ones. Can't we do better? Isn't anyone able to lead us out of Petroland?
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I don't think so. My mom & dad, who live in Myrtle Beach, would gladly ride the train from there to see relatives in Charlotte, Columbia, Greenville and Charleston if a train actually existed. They don't like dealing with the traffic, the headaches, and the trouble with driving.

Do you consider highways to be a tax land and grab under the guise of "keeping high fuel prices" (and getting higher as we speak)?

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There are two vocal groups of people who do nothing but cloud the public transportation issue:

A. The "cars are evil" group. These people hate cars, oil, etc., and want everyone to ride trains and take buses all the time. They assume that people who don't want this sort of transportation are either lazy, fat, or not nearly "European" enough in their thinking.

B. The "public transportation will never work" group. These people love their cars, hate the idea of anyone riding public transportation, and think it is a money drain to support poor people, drug addicts, and hoodlums. They think public transportation is only for "big city folk" in the northeast.

The problem with both extreme views, aside from the fact that they are both WRONG, is that they both fail to realize that we need to work together. Agendas can't, and shouldn't, be forced on anyone. Society is going to have to get to the point where it realizes that more public transportation options are needed. That is going to occur in one of two ways: either oil prices go up so much that people feel a huge financial impact of driving their cars, or people are educated as to the benefits of public transportation. Which of those is likely to happen first? I don't know the answer to that.

I love public transportation, and wish it was an option most everywhere. But it's not. People love their cars, and unlike some people who post here, that doesn't make me enraged and red in the face. Most cities in America are not designed for public transportation, so in my opinion it's silly to expect people to give up their cars for a less convenient and less efficient method. Make public transportation more efficient (in terms of cost or time saved), and people will be interested in learning more about it. Otherwise, it's just a pipe dream that most people find to be impractical and/or unnecessary.

I realize that public transportation needs to be implemented BEFORE it's sorely needed. That's proper planning. But it's ridiculous to expect society as a whole - or even most people in society - to embrace public transportation when the car is the most practical form of transportation throughout most of America.

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NC is spending great deals of money to upgrade train service between Raleigh and Charlotte including buying significant amounts of ROW, double tracking, significant signal upgrades, and massive investments in building new in town train stations. Every city on the line will be getting a new station including a massive one in downtown Charlotte that will also tie in CR and will serve as the Southern terminus of the SE HSPR that will go to DC.

You are correct in that SC isn't even on the radar screen compared to NC, but you have definately mischaracterized what is going on in NC with the train system. It's much much more than a few rail cars.

http://www.bytrain.org

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I'll add a third group but I don't know if it "clouds" the issue or not;

Some of us who like the convience of cars would not mind a nice mass transit system but are turned off by the "public" in public transportation. I realize that it usually takes something on the scale of tax funding to actually fund something that big but it tends to do two things;

1.) Only become a welfare service for those who can't afford cars

2.) a monopoly with no incentives to innovate and attract a larger demographic and to provide additional services.

Instead of the larger buses I'd love to see smaller buses, tram systems or nice vans, "knowledge workers" who pretty much stay downtown, work in office parks or drive company cars would benefit from wi-fi on the vehicles, maybe serve coffee and bagels, etc. Before you think wi-fi in mass transit sounds silly it's no more silly than the free state wide plan either.

I can't totally restricted by mass transit however as I need my car to go to places mass transit would either not go to or would not go to on my schedule.

I guess I am closer to "B" but it would be nice if their were some creative alternatives to local mass transportation.

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Where to start? I am an exploration geologist and my wife is a magazine editor (i.e. not lower income). We live in the suburbs. That's right, the suburbs. We take public transit nearly everywhere. How is that possible you might ask? We're not poor and we don't live in a low income neighborhood, but we still have transit service. We can get anywhere on the bus and skytrain (vancouver's light rail equivalent). We can even go skiing at Whistler without the use of a car.

Believe it or not, I am not alone. I would count very few of my fellow transit riders in the Vancouver area as lower income. Buses and trains are nearly always full and service extends into quite a few well-heeled neighborhoods.

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