Hi!

For land travel, Bicycle is the most effecient for short distances, then cars/buses for up to about 100/150 miles. Trains are the most efficient from about 100-600 miles, then aircraft.

Current "normal" high speed rail is about 250 miles per hour. Maglev is not commercially viable now.

High speed rail makes sense from:
Boston-DC
San Diego-SFO
SEA-PDX
LAX-LAS
Tampa/Jacksonville-MCO-MIA, and maybe even ATL-MCO-MIA.
DFW-IAH
A Midwest hub based in ORD.

Upset about subsidizing trains?
Then, you HAVE to agree to stop subsidizing other forms of mass transportation:
You need to advocate for the ending of:
The $10+ per gallon of gov't subsidy for gasoline
The gov't subsidies for the FAA, airports, and aircraft manufacturers (each airliner produced has about 1/2 of the cost paid for by gov't, and the other 1/2 by the customer).
The gov't subsidies for ports, locks, dams, Coast Guard, Corp of Engineers, etc.

Whether you like it or not, or believe it or not, EVERY MAJOR FORM OF TRANSPORTATION IS HIGHLY SUBSIDZED by various gov't agencies.

And, the cost of gasoline? A PENTAGON study from about 5 years ago showed that the actual cost of a gallon of gas was about $12. Only about $2 of that was being covered by the customer paying for gasoline at the pump...the rest was paid for by US, the taxpayers!!!

cliff
GRB