Will A High Speed Rail Network Ever Be Built In The U.S.?

[Hamartia Antidote]

Amtrak and other US public transportation that need gov't subsidy are run inefficiently, if they had high route frequency, better network and connection and competent management they can easily turn a profit.

You can't force people to take trains...that's like telling people to take a ship to Europe instead of a plane. You can throw $Trillions into building a huge fleet of beautiful transatlantic passenger liners and still easily fail in the end to convince people to use them.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

But it's not needed for the whole of US,

Yes China can do China, it's their choice but for majority of the US (except for the routes I mentioned), it's not worth it financially

There are some facts about the HSR system in China that the Chinese here are not talking about.

First off the busiest airline route in the US is LA to NYC.

Let's look at China's longest HSR route

Beijing to Guangzhou: All aboard the world's longest high-speed rail route

Let's see how far that goes

How long does that train take?

So to get a little more than halfway across the country is about 8 hours (if relatively straight).
Let's say it would take 14 hours to do the whole trip to NYC.

How many people do you really think would take it compared to the unfathomable amount it would cost to buy the land. Sure maybe take it once or twice as a novelty but after that people will be back to planes

From Los Angeles to New York

All flights from Los Angeles to New York visualized!

flightsphere.com

Let's try another popular route.
NYC to Orlando

1543/2298=67%
8hr*67%=5.36 hours to get to Orlando.
It takes less than 3 by plane.

From New York to Orlando

All flights from New York to Orlando visualized!

flightsphere.com

So where is the demand for HSR???
Sure maybe some routes here and there....like LA to SF or LA to Vegas...but a national demand?? I don't think so.

 

[Communism]

It would make more sense to gradually increase the design speed of the U.S. interstate highway system and then increase the speed limit along with that gradual increase.

Should be very easy to do as that's been the solution so far.

We went from 55 to 80 MPH highways in the past few decades. (The 85 mph highway is only 1 toll road in Texas)

The main problem with "high speed rail" is that the U.S. has tons and tons of small and medium cities that would have to have stops for the rail to be worth a damn, and those stops would make the average speed of the "high speed rail" about as fast as taking the highway once you factor in driving to the train station and waiting for your train.

 

[SaadH]

There are some facts about the HSR system in China that the Chinese here are not talking about.

First off the busiest airline route in the US is LA to NYC.

Let's look at China's longest HSR route

Beijing to Guangzhou: All aboard the world's longest high-speed rail route

Let's see how far that goes

How long does that train take?

So to get a little more than halfway across the country is about 8 hours (if relatively straight).
Let's say it would take 14 hours to do the whole trip to NYC.

How many people do you really think would take it compared to the unfathomable amount it would cost to buy the land. Sure maybe take it once or twice as a novelty but after that people will be back to planes

From Los Angeles to New York

All flights from Los Angeles to New York visualized!

flightsphere.com

Let's try another popular route.
NYC to Orlando

1543/2298=67%
8hr*67%=5.36 hours to get to Orlando.
It takes less than 3 by plane.

From New York to Orlando

All flights from New York to Orlando visualized!

flightsphere.com

So where is the demand for HSR???
Sure maybe some routes here and there....like LA to SF or LA to Vegas...but a national demand?? I don't think so.

Nice work, but try harder next time, NYC to LA is barely the busiest city to city corridor, SFO to LA is very close second, 3.53 mn vs 3.51 mn.

However, the corridor I referred to was between Northern and Southern CA. There are four international airports in Northern California (SFO, SJC, OAK and SAC), which lie in 100/150 miles radius of each other and at least five in Southern California (LAX, SNA, ONT, SAN, BUR) also within 100/150 miles of each other. The traffic between these nine international airport is probably the busiest in the world.

 

[Han Patriot]

High speed rail works best in developing countries like China where people don't own the land and the country is mostly undeveloped.

How are you going to run a straight rail line when you have land that looks like this mile after mile?? The cost to pay off these people is astronomical for something nobody wants.

View attachment 772272

Just think of all the $Millions/$Billions it would cost.
Or do you think each should only be given $1? As if that isn't going to make a ton of people feel "miserable and subjugated".

Where I am each one of those houses is over $1M. It adds up to an insane amount real quick (probably $100M) just to clear a single 1km path.

Developing country can afford billions in investment? Japan and France is developing? When they made their HSR they were already developed countries. US can't build HSR even if it wanted to, the system is just too fcked up to even function properly, it is only good at maintaining the current situation. Ever heard of elevated rail? You think China builds its rail in housing complexes numb numb? You upgrade your existing lines and use it for HSR. US don't have the money nor the political will to build it. Look at Afghanistan, 2 trillion and its still a shit hole.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

However, the corridor I referred to was between Northern and Southern CA. There are four international airports in Northern California (SFO, SJC, OAK and SAC), which lie in 100/150 miles radius of each other and at least five in Southern California (LAX, SNA, ONT, SAN, BUR) also within 100/150 miles of each other. The traffic between these nine international airport is probably the busiest in the world.

Hey read my posts again. I said I see no problem with some regional highspeed rail like LA to SF orr LA to Vegas. However some interconnected countrywide system like in China or Europe doesn't make practical sense.

The main problem with "high speed rail" is that the U.S. has tons and tons of small and medium cities that would have to have stops for the rail to be worth a damn, and those stops would make the average speed of the "high speed rail" about as fast as taking the highway once you factor in driving to the train station and waiting for your train.

Agreed. It will run into the same issue as airlines have with everybody wanting to fly direct with no stop-overs.

 

[MH.Yang]

NO.
Please don't underestimate the influence of Boeing, AmericanAirlines, DeltaAirLines, Buick, ford, etc.