High speed rail...

So, the stimulus package has $8 billion for high speed rail, and Obama want $1 billion a year for the next 5 years.

It's about time! But the amount of funding doesn't seem like it will do much. High speed rail is expensive (should have gotten a leg up in the 70's like everyone else!). Heck, India has a better rail system than the US, how pathetic is that!

So discuss, high speed rail a good idea or not?

For a country as big as the USA it will be awesome, a lot of people hate to fly so i think it will probably raise revenue in tourism within the united states.

How fast does it go?
it's always good to have fast delivery for shipping goods and live stock especially fruits and vegetables (fresh)

Yeah I think it'd be a good idea. Wish the trains here went a bit f***ing faster

Like bullet trains, those things look so cool!! In the us it could easily make things much easier for lots of people and be more environmentally friendly as they run on electricity (but you'd have to provide/source green electricity).

If it can be executed as it is in say japan then I think people would use the train a lot more, plus Journey time would be a great deal less!

In the UK personally I think it's not worth the investment because on a train it takes like 10 hours to get from Devon to Mid Scotland, and building a high speed rail network would be very expensive for the fact that not many people are going to be doing such a long journey regularly. Though if they decreased the time it took then perhaps Cornish people would work in Scotland!

I think for contries like the USA with a huge land mass its a great idea, maybe not so much for the UK, the investment cost to public benifit ratio probably makes it un workable here as we are limited to the train routes that are available. Having said that we are investing in new tilting trains etc.

It would be interesting as to what sort of high speed rail they are going to invest in. From what i understand it will probably be conventional rail systems tilting carriages so that they can carry high speeds through bends in the rails etc.

However i have read about new trains being developed using electro magnets. The trains actually float above the rails reducing friction and increasing speed. It kind of works on the principle of the high speed rollercosters that you get in theme parks.

Now they would be really cool.

that's because they can't get anywhere driving



A high speed train would be nice though, would give us an alternative to driving or flying.

just found this

I like the Northwest one

Looks like the 405 in LA.


...or Phoenix

Notice how we have LANES

Well, that's a start but there needs to be way more!

Wow looking at that proposed high speed routes, sucks to be in Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska?.

It's been said by others but I'll repeat it. It sounds perfect for a country our size. We've always had a problem when it came to travel and the transport of goods. While it isn't really a problem now, high speed rail would only make it that much easier. I wonder if Russia, Canada, and China have it too? If they do, it'd be interesting to see how effective it is (which I'm sure it's VERY effective, but I'd nonetheless like to see it).

they'd put more in Canada but fear these guys

And street lights.