Why do airplanes need seats at all? Using the same amount of space for the same number of people, they could remodel the entire existing structure to look like Japanese capsule hotels, and we'd all be 10 times more comfortable. <img src=http://travellingboard.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/akihabara-hotel1.jpg>
I just flew Hawaiian and it is GREAT! When I go to Europe I use ANYTHING but UNITED and I never have problems......in the US if I cannot drive fuck them, they'll wait or I won't go!!!
I saw a play at the Lincoln Center Theater Sunday, and whoever designed those seats must have done United's as well. I'm only 5-10 and my knees were squashed against the seat in front of me. It is more than just airlines.
A huge waste of money in a large country. 1) It will cost a huge amount of money to build, and likely will struggle to make money on many routes. Politicians will demand stupid things like high speed rail from Fairbanks to Anchorage. Look at Amtrak, and multiply the costs by a huge multiple 2) We already have a safe, high speed travel system called AIRLINES. All high speed rail will do is siphon off business and cause even more airlines to struggle for decades. Also, as the bombing of the Spanish train that killed hundreds, they are almost as much a target as airplanes. The airlines need to build much faster loading and takeoff procedures, with more runways and more small airports in strategic locations. Instead of spending $300 billion on ill conceived high speed trains, put some of the money into unsnarling metropolitan air traffic regions. Put the money into expanding and building more and fortifying domestic airlines and let them compete. 3) There is also many bus lines that connect nearby cities.
It seems that to understand the economics of high speed rail versus flying you have to consider all the ancillary costs and savings. One fundamental that can't be gotten around without violating the laws of thermodynamics is that it is far more efficient to move a mass via rail at 200 miles per hour than it is to move the same mass through the air at 600 miles per hour. The relationship is not linear but exponential. Probably a hybrid transportation system is best where both high-speed rail and air transport is used. I would hope the decision of whether to invest in high-speed rail will be made on the basis of a thorough cost versus benefit analysis versus alternatives and the practical experience of more advanced countries that already operate such systems, and not on the basis of whose lobby has the most influence. The decision to use ethanol made from corn in motor fuel serves as a fine example of how not to make these decisions.
Those of us who live in the U.S. have plenty of reasons to be cynical. But there is always hope that this time will be different.