High speed rail in the NE

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09-04-2019 | 05:34 PM

#51

tomgoodman

Gets Weekends Off

Joined: Feb 2006

Posts: 6,248

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From: 767A (Ret)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spin

I completely agree with you, we have to think about the future. In a near future, if not already, roads will be saturated -the air too-, making travel unpleasant and inefficient. We also have to think about pollution.
US politicians sooner or later will have to start thinking about the HSR.

Cheaper solution: hire ad agencies and spinmeisters to convince people that they are better off staying where they are.

09-04-2019 | 05:51 PM

#52

rickair7777

Prime Minister/Moderator

Joined: Jan 2006

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From: Engines Turn or People Swim

Quote:

Originally Posted by saxman66

A 1000+ mile route stops in dozens of cities along it's route though, creating dozens of possible city pairs to travel between or make connections to other services. Most pax don't travel from end to end but make shorter trips on the possible city pairs, many being 200-400 miles apart. Therefore one single seat will sell multiple times on one single run. This way, many smaller towns can be served too, where it is often very expensive to fly.

Airlines gave up on multi-stop flights a long time ago because pax don't have the patience for it. Nobody doing DC to ORD wants to stop at 27 small towns along the way. Defeats the point of "High Speed".

09-04-2019 | 05:57 PM

#53

saxman66

Line Holder

Joined: Jul 2006

Posts: 1,143

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From: 737

Quote:

Originally Posted by rickair7777

I don't think anyone would suggest an airliner make 27 stops in small towns aside from a handful of EAS routes that make two stops. Completely different mode.

09-10-2019 | 07:46 AM

#54

galaxy flyer

Gets Weekends Off

Joined: May 2010

Posts: 5,244

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From: Baja Vermont

Anyone who wants to understand the problem of HSR in the NE needs to read this study. Cars are still, by huge margins, the travel mode of choice.

http://nec-commission.com/app/upload...rt_Website.pdf

09-10-2019 | 08:25 AM

#55

Excargodog

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Joined: Jan 2018

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Quote:

Originally Posted by rickair7777

It REALLY does defeat high speed. On my last (and if I have anything to do with it FINAL) Amtrak experience we stopped at dozens of little whistlestops to drop off or pick up one to three passengers. Having to bring a million pound train to a complete stop and then reaccelerate it took enough energy to more than offset the putative efficiency of rail travel, while every smoker aboard jumped out to get a “quick” smoke, oftentimes delaying their boarding to the point where we missed our “slot” between north and southbound trains traveling on the same rails and had to sit along a siding.

We were 14 hours late on what was advertised as a 23 hour trip.

What makes high speed rail work - in the countries it does work - is nonstop travel between exceedingly large and population dense city centers that are within a few hundred miles of each other up far enough apart to make the speed necessary. We simply don’t have that here.