fibersport
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2010
- Messages
- 104
Re: Speaking of trains, this makes no sense to me.
Have to join in on this one. I work for an electric commuter railroad that travels at 79 mph in certain areas, my last big project was purchasing new passenger cars. I spent considerable time in Japan with the car builder and rode the Bullet train twice, and even saw the newest ones being built. It was truly amazing at the ride quality on these things, not to mention their on-time performance - they measure their delays in seconds! I doubt you will see trains like that in the US anytime soon, at least not at the speeds they run at, one key reason is because there are no grade crossings in Japan for the Bullet trains! I do believe that high speed trains could substitute for air travel, and honestly I would prefer to travel by rail (and I'm NOT a railfan), but think of what it would take to build the infrastructure across so many state lines to make the trip worthwhile. It was commented how many people would ride through Chicago, the question is how many people fly from Chicago to Detroit every day? When rail travel is equal or cheaper AND as fast as flying, we would support it. Think about how long it takes to fly somewhere, I used to say if I could drive there in 4 hours I would drive, now it's more like 6-8 hours just because of the delays at the airports. Japan has successfully made rail equal to or better than flying, we could do it too but as it's been said, there are just too many "groups" against it.
Have to join in on this one. I work for an electric commuter railroad that travels at 79 mph in certain areas, my last big project was purchasing new passenger cars. I spent considerable time in Japan with the car builder and rode the Bullet train twice, and even saw the newest ones being built. It was truly amazing at the ride quality on these things, not to mention their on-time performance - they measure their delays in seconds! I doubt you will see trains like that in the US anytime soon, at least not at the speeds they run at, one key reason is because there are no grade crossings in Japan for the Bullet trains! I do believe that high speed trains could substitute for air travel, and honestly I would prefer to travel by rail (and I'm NOT a railfan), but think of what it would take to build the infrastructure across so many state lines to make the trip worthwhile. It was commented how many people would ride through Chicago, the question is how many people fly from Chicago to Detroit every day? When rail travel is equal or cheaper AND as fast as flying, we would support it. Think about how long it takes to fly somewhere, I used to say if I could drive there in 4 hours I would drive, now it's more like 6-8 hours just because of the delays at the airports. Japan has successfully made rail equal to or better than flying, we could do it too but as it's been said, there are just too many "groups" against it.