Don't think there's much need for a 110 MPH train to run to st.louis from chicago, but the rails have been used for years. I remember booking a trip on Amtrak a few years ago from chicago to Albuquerque, run took 3 days and cost twice as much money as a plane ticket. I was sooooo bored.

Word is they might build a line up to Milwalkee, thats one that may actually be a good idea tho a 110 MPH train will be hard to build unless the entire line is elevated or below ground- both EXPENSIVE options.

These are truly emission free sources of energy. Clean coal? I do not believe clean coal exists. There is nothing clean about it as far as I can tell. Nuclear? What about the byproduct that lasts for centuries? Natural gas? Is the the cleanest out of the bunch of burning material?

Nothing is the perfect solution. Even solar and wind systems both require batteries which are highly polluting to manufacture and highly polluting to dispose of.

And natural gas has a disturbing tendancy to blow things up.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110210/...ding_explosion
http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-09-1...oke-inhalation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison,..._gas_explosion
http://www.heatingoil.com/blog/123290208/
http://travel.usatoday.com/hotels/po...rists/131116/1

:o

:rotfl2:

Didn't spell check that one- good catch.
;)

And you took it so well I'll now apologize for being mean. :sunny:

Don't forget that the governments past interest is transportation systems had everything to do with national security and rapid mobilization.

And that interest is still just as valid today too.

I understand now that Florida isn't alone. Governors in Ohio and Wisconsin have also rejected it.

No.

It's just the definition of mental Illness. "Repeating the same action over and over, expecting a different result".


FWIW, I'm saddened to see resistance to a high speed rail system. It's one of the things that make Europe great, is the ability to get anywhere, quickly, and fairly cheaply and efficiently.

The reason Amtrak doesn't work is cause it's burdened by the low-speed rail lines it has to run on. If they were to design and build a high speed rail system, for passenger and light traffic only, then it would be a lot more cost and fuel efficient than any other means of travel.

Just curious, how much would it cost to design and build a high speed rail system down the Bos-Wash Corridor? and would there be enough passengers to turn a profit?

Hmmm, well unless its changed since i lived there, it's not exactly anywhere, it's not nearly as quick as a personal vehicle, and if sleeping in the Wuzburg train station waiting for the morning train to Ansbach is efficient, well... :hmmm::DL but it WAS cheap compared to gas and car costs.

Better to have more trains like Amtrak's Auto train than to invest in a project like high-speed rail.

People love their cars and the Auto Train takes them along with you.

It wouldn't work everywhere, but for popular destinations such as central Florida it works great.

Us Americans are a car culture, one that I admit I'm a very big part of.;)

It's a waste of money to spend on something people would not use, myself included, that's how I see it.

Heck, around here trains are viewed not much more than a novelty.

Just IMO.

Wrong. It has been attributed to Einstein, but without proof. It is most certainly not "the definition of mental illness", or the definition of insanity.

It is a joke definition, not a real one.

All I know is that my psych prof's (back when I was a comp sci / psych double major) always called that the definition of. One of them even claimed to have found it in the DSM IV. *shrug* It is too cute to be a clinical definition, but I know Einstein probably never said it.


Anyways, I know a High speed rail here in Ohio would be great, a Cleveland-Columbus-Cincy line would be awesome. The right of way is pretty much already built with I-71, just gotta elevate parts of it. Be real cool to run down to Columbus for a day to catch a jackets game without the 3 hour drive on each end. And the College traffic (OSU, UC, etc) would love it. And the East-West routes would be great. Buffalo-Cle-Detroit-Chicago, Pitt-Columbus-Indy.

That is just the type of local knowledge that any Federal program is going to lack. All they know is what the unions and a dozen other special interests tell them. That's why we get bridges to nowhere...