https://www.hoover.org/research/little-engine-couldnt-califo...
Regardless, I hope this plan sees fruition in a reasonable timeframe. Further investments in transit within cities themselves would be welcome too, given a lot of folks may be renting a car at 1 end of a high speed rail trip, but this seems great.
The LA-Las Vegas route sounds interesting to me. That road tends to get really bad on the weekends, so I think it would serve a need for the bougie set that don't want to deal with traffic.
An LA-Vegas train would also be a boon for senior citizens (which make up a large percentage of gamblers), who often take buses to gambling destinations today.
https://www.railwayage.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image_...
It doesn’t show railways, though, but may show railway station investments (I didn’t look hard for them)
The cargo car that had a wheel break in the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland created damage so bad that it will be closed until September 2024. 7km need to be completely redone at a cost of over 100 million.
All of this because some low cost cargo company ran their wheels way past expiration.
The train was inspected twice by humans and once by an automated system before it entered the tunnel but such catastrophic wheel failures are almost impossible to check for. It is up to the owners of these cars to ensure the equipment doesn't have too many km on it.
Additionally cargo cars are dumb pieces of steel so the train operator does not notice right away if a wheel is gone unlike with a passenger train. The locomotives have so much power they will easily keep chugging along dragging the damaged cars behind them ripping out the track.
My latest - and last - attempt at taking the train from St. Paul to Columbus, WI (nearest stop to Madison) was scheduled to leave at 8 am. At 8:30, we were told by Amtrak staff they “expect the train within the half-hour”. They kept saying this until 1pm. I could have driven the route in less time than I spent waiting fruitlessly for the train to arrive.
A lot of this issue comes from freight stealing priority from passenger trains. By law, passenger trains have priority but Amtrak has no way to enforce this which makes Amtrak trains less likely to run on schedule.
*I'm not talking about last mile deliveries, or suggesting the entire trucking industry can be magically turned into railroad freight.
Combined with the route (which takes a big detour, increasing the ride between the termini), it seems like we're going to pay a lot of money to have something that can sort of get you between northern LA and southern San Jose in a not-very-short amount of time. Hard to see the attraction.
https://www.caltrain.com/news/caltrain-announces-exciting-ne...
edit: Looks like the Downeaster could get extended to Rockland. Neat! https://www.wabi.tv/2023/12/08/downeaster-could-extend-furth...
I'm curious as to why you think this? LA<->Vegas on I15 gets supremely busy during the weekends. I dunno how much regular commuter traffic there would be during weekdays, but it seems like it would see high demand, especially if its a) faster than driving and b) you can drink on the train. My main issue with it is that it doesn't actually get very far into LA.
I know it's hard to accept, but the US geography (and population density really) makes high speed rail pretty much a no-go here.
It was very scenic though and I very much enjoyed being able to walk around and also walk to the food car to get a beverage and sit at one of the tables there.
This is like someone making 100k a year complaining about spending 16 cents on something because they have a loan to pay off.
Stop wasting the money of other people. Rail sucks. Leave it for cargo.
The Chicago region only got about 15% of what it asked for, and notably they didn't include funding for a few smaller projects that would have combined to shave 20-30 minutes off of almost half of all long-distance Amtrak trains.
They literally refused to fund a project to double-track a 1-mile section of track on the south side of Chicago (on a 4-track wide right of way) that causes delays to every single Amtrak route between Chicago and the east coast.
There's a 13(?) mile long section of single track in Michigan (that Amtrak owns!), and is the largest source of delay for all Chicago-Detroit trains. And they refused add a second track, which the right of way already has room for.
They are talking 220mph here. I would think autonomous electric vehicles could do this too.
Although, possibly rail might be safer because you can build fences to keep animals out.
Maybe a mixture of both in the future?
- 10x costs to maintain the vehicles (tires brakes etc) - 10x less energy efficient - 10x less comfortable, cars are bumpy trains are smooth
Your delusions never cease to amaze.
Freight Rail is actually the reason why our passenger rail sucks so much, because in USA, Freight has priority over passengers. So a lot of our passenger rails sit waiting for the freight-trains to pass.
“For over 50 years, freight railroads have been required by law to provide Amtrak with “preference” to run passenger trains ahead of freight trains. However, many freight railroads ignore the law because it is extremely difficult for Amtrak to enforce it, and as a result, people and the American economy suffer.” https://www.amtrak.com/on-time-performance#:~:text=For%20ove....
Do you have any sources for this? This doesn't sound correct to me. A train is a queue, there is no priority in regards to crossings that I know of.
Edit: I stand corrected, Amtrak report does suggest that freight might have a priority. That report is honestly shocking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law
Reasonably loaded freight trucks do about 10000x as much damage to roads, per mile. Freight trucks also run a lot further per day than regular vehicles. I know a lot of roads never see any freight haulage at all, but I suspect that major transits (interstate highways) are essentially a way to get the US public to pay for freight haulage jobs. I'd guess that last mile is far less damaging, as the box trucks weigh far less.
Elon has a history of making fake, bold claims just as the state tried to take on more responsibility.
Starlink instead of municipal Internet
Hyper loop instead of cal train
Now “train mode trucks” which is literally just insane if you’ve driven cross country.
It’s very smart, and allows the west coast to grow its population.
For instance, if I live in Bellevue or Redmond and want to go to Portland, I can drive in the same 3hrs as it would take someone who lives in Downtown Seattle to take the train. But if I were to take the train, I'm looking at a 20-30min taxi or uber ride first, plus the cost.
For instance, the Amtrak Cascades ticket from pdx to Seattle is only $26. On the other hand, when you calculate the IRS mileage rate of 66 cents per mile for the 161-mile distance between Portland and Seattle, driving adds up to $106. This calculation doesn't consider the opportunity cost of driving, as it limits your ability to do other things while operating a car. Additionally, it doesn't factor in externalities like pollution. Considering the challenging driving conditions in Seattle, avoiding the hassle of driving and parking there is a definite positive in my opinion.
Its a difficult situation, because nominally, the freight-rail operators also own those raillines. So a free-market solution is likely not possible. This is just something that needs to be enforced from the top-down.
There are likely solution to the issue that are not top-down, but this isn’t a situation where free market forces will provide the socially optimal outcome.
