Originally Posted by
Bucking Bar
Another cornerstone of our politically driven assault by our Department of Transportation on the airline industry seems to be falling apart as a result of the inevitable reality of economics:
So the 8 Billion in high speed rail study projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act appears to have been wasted.
$1.1 Billion spent on the "High Speed Rail" line between Chicago and St. Louis managed to speed the train up to .... wait for it ... 62 Miles Per Hour (would eleven exclamation points be too many?)
Mean while, development of next gen RNAV / RNP navigation needed to free up traffic in the NYC area and common sense solutions like Crew Pass are stuck over funding issues.
It is a no brainer that Congress is never going to fund a France style high speed rail system that (1) is just as fast as the cargo train already on the track and which (2) would require enormous subsidies to operate while it still failed to attract anyone who values their time.
Travel by airplane is far from perfect. But rewarmed 1800's technology is not going to be the threat to our profession some claimed it might be only two years ago.
High speed rail is economical in smaller places like Japan and European countries, where the rail lines are
1.) Shorter and thus cheaper
2.) and where a 100mph train will actually beat a 450 knot jet taking into account the process for each
However trying to compete across a vast expanse like the US is just stupid. I actually looked at the price of an Amtrak ticket for the wife and I from CA to Chicago. Thought maybe it would be fun. $350 each, for COACH seats and it would take.... wait for it.... TWO DAYS. So for the same price as Southwest, I could sit in coach for TWO DAYS vice 4 hours?!?! Europe is broke for a reason, lets stop trying to chase them down the hole.