Mag Lev to Atlanta

[Black and White]

The topic subtitle is my own but isn't it true.

http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl.../703030313/1003

http://www.arcadis-global.com/service+type...signation++.htm

Nashville's first sprawl was caused by the trolleys to East Nashville. If can I can live 60 miles outside of Nashville, Chattanooga or Atlanta and commute there within a half an hour isn't that going to open a lot of farmland to subdivision development?

Is this another case of "be careful of what you wish for - you might just get it"?

[Kheldane]

The topic subtitle is my own but isn't it true...Is this another case of "be careful of what you wish for - you might just get it"?

[NewTowner]

First of all, Black 'n' White, you are confusing sprawl with growth. Sprawl is a type of growth, but all growth isn't sprawl--kind of like how cancer is a type of growth, but all growth isn't cancer. The streetcar suburbs were mostly good, walkable, human-scaled places...they were largely nice, and still are, even though the streetcars are sadly removed.

I think it is goofy to imagine that a passenger train would do much to encourage sprawl...do you imagine the MagLev would have a station every thirty feet? You are silly sometimes, even though I give you sweet smiles.

[southsideJ]

There have been Mag-Lev rumors for a while about an Atlanta to Chattanooga rail and more recently Nashville. Here is an interesting PDF document on the project that concentrates mostly on the Atlanta to Chattanooga part. I read somewhere that it would cost $3-5 billion just to construct the rail from Atlanta to Chattanooga alone.

So if they are commissioning a feasibility study on the Northern part does that mean that this thing actually has a chance of becoming reality one day? I'm guessing even it did it would probably be a few decades before it was actually completed.

[Black and White]

First of all, Black 'n' White, you are confusing sprawl with growth.

[nashvillwill]

Yhis is indeed very confusing. The Tennesseean article mentions maglev, as well as the pdf document (although, it states that construction should start last year). However the Arcadis page mentions high-speed rail in cooperation with CSX. What gives? Either way, I dont see any TN politicians putting their necks out on this one. The general public wouldn't understand what this is.

[Black and White]

/\ I agree.

It will be just another revenue drain like the Music City Black Star (a Black Star is another name for a black hole)

[Hankster]

If you examine the PDF document, it says the Nashville - Chattanooga - Atlanta - Macon - Savannah run would be Maglev while all the others would be high speed rail. It's very early in design and anything could ultimately come out of this. I wonder what kind of assumptions were made to show substantial operating profits in 2025. Man, if those kind of profits would really come of this, there only one conclusion I could make of all this. Let's build this thing! Better yet, let's build a national network!

Ah, but let's come back to reality. I've got serious doubts that those assumptions are accurate, and I've got doubts there cost assumptions are high enough. Still, I think this country needs to find out if high speed rail will work. The nation needs an alternative to gas guzzling cars and air transportation.

Finally, I love where Chattanooga fits in all of this. My two most travelled to destinations are Nashville and Atlanta. The project would be sweet for both me and Chattanooga!

[nashvillwill]

/\ I agree.

It will be just another revenue drain like the Music City Black Star (a Black Star is another name for a black hole)

[nashvillwill]

to add, in a joking manner. I'm going to rename the newly dubbed Music City Black Hole to the Music City Quasar. A Quasar is "is a celestial object which appears "star-like" but is not explainable in terms of the usual stellar properties. Many quasars have a visible "tail" - supposedly a jet of material expelled from the quasar. A typical quasar produces more light each second than an entire galaxy of stars does, and it does so from a region of space which is perhaps as small as our solar system. " In this manner, it is a very bright, active star, with a tail extending in each direction. Definately, the best of whats around!

[Black and White]

My only point is that probably 90%+ of Americans don't even know how to properly catch a bus, let alone how the logistics/finances work. ...... So, B&W, I think your in luck on this one. JMO

[nashvillwill]

Well B&W, i don't have the 15 years of experience that you do, but my year of it on the Subway, LIRR, and Metro-North were not as bleak as your 15. I never felt that my personal rights were being infringed upon. Transit afforded me opportunity to live in the city, i never could have afforded to live there and own a car. Yet strangly enough, I didn't miss my car once. I guess your privacy is what you make of it. My privacy came with a magazine and an iPod. In my auto i Nashville, i spent more time communicating with other people through hand signals than i ever did on the subway. Keep in mind, not all New Yorkers flee to Conneticut as soon as they can afford it. Most people in Conneticut cannot afford Manhatten, and that's why they take transit. It gives them the opportunity to make money and take it home, without having to put it all in their gas tank.

I think people do want, to use mass transit, thats why 7 million people use the subway everyday. But the subway is convinent, the Nashville MTA is not. The government doesn't provide a viable option for its people. Nashvillians don't have the luxury of choosing not to own a car. It's a neccesity. That is one right that is taken away from the people.

I'll tell you what does infringe on my personal rights. Having to register my car every year, pay for tags, pay 2.50+ a gallon (including over 40 cents tax), and the like. When I was young, I used to go camping in the woods 15 minutes from my home. Now those woods are a strip mall. Now the only true nature I can find is over and hour and a half away. But according to you, global warming is bunk. I suppose that energy is limitless also. We can all keep doing what we do, and i suppose our government will keep providing cheap electricity for us no matter what. That's what goverment really cares about, right, protecting the freedoms and comforts of all the little people.

I suppose I WAS wrong about the Quasar. That term should be reserved for the personal auto. Since quasars consume more energy than galaxies 100 times their size, i guess the term is only fitting.

[NewTowner]

Sprawl is a good thing. Traffic congestion is a good thing. They both represent individuals exercising their freedoms. Neither cause nor effect (whichever is which, you decide) can be stopped nor should be stopped.

[Kheldane]

Thanks Will, but it is not really luck as much as it is simple observation.

[Kheldane]

Your arguments are simplistic and devoid of merit.....You rant about freedom and personal liberties--but you are really just a motorized socialist who wants the government to pave your paths through tax and spend politics, dispersing our Republic's dollars into the countryside for the benefit of only those Americans who want and/or are able to own and operate a car.

[smurf]

... We can all keep doing what we do, and i suppose our government will keep providing cheap electricity for us no matter what...

[sleepy]

Where can I get me some of this cheap, government electricity of which you speak? Cause I sure could go for some.

[smurf]

TVA perhaps?

[Black and White]

Nashvillians don't have the luxury of choosing not to own a car. It's a neccesity. That is one right that is taken away from the people.

[Hankster]

Sprawl is a good thing. Traffic congestion is a good thing.

[BnaBreaker]

Your arguments are simplistic and devoid of merit. Who do you think builds the road systems? They are subsidized just as heavily as any other form of transportation that graces this world of ours. If you want real "individual freedom", remove all subsidies of any kind on transport and give private rail operators a fighting chance of competing with private road builders. One will make money through the sale of tickets to pedestrians, and the other will make money by taking tolls from motorists. That's a description of the capitalism you claim to support. Trains are unprofitable because they are competing against the Federal Government, not because they are competing with Ford or GM. I say-uh, I say-uh that's a Nice Boy, but he doesn't listen to a word you say.

You rant about freedom and personal liberties--but you are really just a motorized socialist who wants the government to pave your paths through tax and spend politics, dispersing our Republic's dollars into the countryside for the benefit of only those Americans who want and/or are able to own and operate a car.

You need to back up and take a look at the big picture before you start trying to describe it--much less argue for change within it.

There you have it! Thanks, Nashvillwill! Automobile ownership should be a luxury, not a necessity...not a prerequisite for participation in civic life...period.

[Black and White]

After spending a weekend recently in Atlanta, and having to spend hours claustriphobically tied up in miles and miles of seemingly endless traffic jams,

[Black and White]

Your arguments are simplistic and devoid of merit.

[monsoon]

^No transit doesn't affect sprawl, good planning, zoning, and land use restrictions do. Transit is a tool that allows these practices to be implemented as designs around the automobile can't do it when it requires that 60% of the land in a city be devoted to roads and parking.

The really funny thing is that antisprawlers think that public transportation will stop sprawl. Sprawl has been with us since the dawn of civilization. It is only the arrogance of those who believe that their consciousness is so elevated that they can stop something that is a salient part of humanity just because they know better.

[NewTowner]

Thank you, Metro.M!

One of the na