I saw the highspeed train in Germany along the autobahn. I was doing about 120 mph and it felt like I was standing still. The thing pulled a train on me… :picard:
X…
Wow a whole week ago. I bet you have one black friend too.
For something like a HS rail to work, it needs to be filled all day every day. Just a ride here and there won’t pay of the system. Its a pretty huge investment, it can’t be a cool toy. In case you haven’t noticed, we are pretty much out of money, proved by the fact that we are borrowning ship loads from china. We can’t just waste it on toys, its has to be something that will actually make money, or at least break even.
PS, how are all you enviro wacko’s going to power this? Windmills and solar cells will be a far cry short of making enough energy for that pig.
ugh, big surprise on who’s against this…the hardcore conservatives that are against all progress.
also no surprise who is all for it.
I am a pretty hardcore conservative and I am for nothing less than a high speed rail.
Don’t get me started on alternative energies in this fucking country. If we would actually invest in the infrastructure of wind or solar energy, there would more than enough to power a HS train.
My one black friend would never say, “In case you haven’t noticed.”
If I could take public transportation to work with reasonable timing, I sure would. You think I like driving my car 30 mins to and from work in traffic everyday?
Word to that. I visited DC and road the rails there. I would never drive a car if I lived there.
People made most of these same arguments 50 years ago when Eisenhower proposed the Interstate System. We already had roads to get around, and planes. why did we need to spend all this money on bigger, faster roads?
Haha, I cant wait to hear the naysayers stance on this next time oil hits $140. If it was possible, think of how nice it would be to even load your car up on the train and carry it to your destination.
So are you really comparing Buffalo’s transit system to that of a HS rail system?
Looks like Chicago will be making out on this deal.
Obama needs to stop mining my head for ideas! Seriously, this is the exact map I doodled in my head except Buffalo and Cleveland would also be connected. We don’t need nationwide high speed, but it would be nice to be able to go from say NYC west to Minneapolis through major cities, or Seattle to San Diego.
BTW, this week I was on the NJ Transit train from New Brunswick to Penn Station, tooling along at 60mph, and the Acela Express blew by the train like it was standing still 
And I’ve been on the ICE trains in Germany, and the French SNCF trains, they are a lot faster than the Acela. It’s a way better and more convenient way to travel than flying
I’m looking forward to this and hopes it gets done. It would be nice to really shorten up the trip between VT and Buffalo when I come home and visit.
Get the cost down a touch more too and it would be gold. As is though, I still occasionally take Amtrak’s service for the convenience. I would likely never drive back to Buffalo if the cost was cheaper for a train ticket. $74 round-trip/person is still a bit steep for Albany-Buffalo. $50 during non-peak times would get my ass in there ALL the time.
I also used the TGV to go from Paris and Lyon and it was INCREDIBLE. If the US could implement a true high-speed train like that it would be incredible. The convenience of rail, lack of cattle car conditions, and it is just plain awesome ripping past shit at 200mph.
That said, I’d be happy to even just settle for a neutered high speed train at reasonable cost per ticket.
I love the idea of a system like this. Lighten up traffic in the big cities, lower dependence on oil, take some big trucks off the road if the rail doubles as a shipping service…so many possitives.
What would really sell me would be if they had overnight service that could get me from say Buffalo to Minneapolis. Imagine being able to board a sleeper car and wake up at a final destination 1000 miles away without really having lost any travel time since you slept through the whole thing!
This is an excellent idea.If they get this up and running than at least 100000 jobs for service station will be created. Companies around here will probably build rail cars and trains creating 1000’s of jobs. This could be a great opportunity to apply alternative energy sources.
It could work, only reason the buffalo sub-way is so bad is because its not really all that usefull…and thats not really a fair comparison by any means.
You start on the edge of Amherst, and you end up down town, the trains stop to early to use to get home from Chippewa, and other than the ballpark and arena it takes you no where.
Maybe it somehow it mades it way to the airport it would be useful.
In DC, NYC, etc there trains actually do more than connect universities.
Add a bar car, casino car, movie car, this would be a heck of a way to travel. rolling Las Vegas for the longer stretches.
did you know that in the simpson’s monorail episode, all of the towns mentioned are in western new york?