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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (125947)	12/1/2009 12:40:19 PM
From: Bread Upon The Water	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 542571

Who is going to actually ride on these trains? I think, but am not sure, that all these studies that support high speed passenger rail do ridership projections that are way overly optimistic. The only trains that have been shown to profitably work in the USA are commuter trains---not long distance passenger ones.

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (125947)	12/1/2009 3:55:22 PM
From: cosmicforce	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542571

Like generals always fighting the last war, it seems highway and transportation planners are always expanding the last technology. High Speed Rail (HSR) may work between places like LA and San Diego where the 2 hour drive has become a gridlocked mess. I personally view HSR as a very limited transportation solution in California with almost no public support. There is a plausible medium to long-haul breakthrough technology where people, cars or goods are sent to a grid destination 500 to 1500 miles away on a jumbo 300 MPH train. In this vision, people would drive a car onto a "land ferry" that would drop them off at a depot a couple hours distant, where they continue their travels conventionally. It would provide a more efficient and faster alternative to some truck traffic but that isn't what is being proposed by anyone.