Why the heck don't we have a modern high speed rail system like japans Shinkansen which has a 44 year 7billion passenger history of 0 fatalities A system that connects the major metro cities would be a great alternative to airtravel. We can put someone on the moon but not build a real rail system in the US for passenger travel.
The right wing can't figure out how to make money on a high speed rail system... ...or use a high speed rail to invade oil rich countries...
1) Japan is a homogeneous society. It's easier to get everybody to agree on something. The USA is "diverse". It's harder to get agreement on anything. 2) High-speed rail lines in the USA can have too many station stops, similar to Amtrak, negating the higher travel speed. 3) Rail travel is for nerds and those who have airplane-phobia.
Obama Seeks High-Speed Rail System Across U.S ----------------------- Hmnnn. That was Hillary's press release when she was Senator and needed her name in the news, prior to Hillary, I'm sure Schumer used that on a slow news day. But of course, this was just for NY, don't recalll, they might have thrown in the whole USA for good measure, no one listens to that crap anyways. Fwiw, I took a train from NY to Florida, I kid you not by the time we had traveled 1/2 hour on the train we were 2 hours behind schedule. The scheduled trip was maybe 24 26 hours and we were 12 hours late. At least they didn't charge us extra for the longer ride, nice guys. P.s. this happened on the return trip also.
Here are a few reasons 1. The current rails are owned by the shippers who get preference over passenger cars. 2. Our country is huge, comparing the size of japan to the us isnt a good one. Its probably better to see how efficient Brazil's rail is to the US. 3. We have good land rights, which are slowly be taken away, but still make it hard to build new line. 4. Air travel is extremely cheap and efficient. 5. The network of roads allows semi high speed travel between destinations outside of the East Atlantic and some of California. Now my question to you, Did you just finish playing railroad tycoon and started wondering?
+1 Also, the US decided that air travel would be the preferred method of cross country transportation.
The notion of high speed rail in America is ridiculous. 1. Population centers are too far apart. 2. Rail construction cost are very high. 3. Even if someone took the rail to a destination, he'd probably rent a car when he got there. Only places rail might make sense are Eastern corridor or perhaps Vegas to LA (and in that case, should be paid for by Vegas casinos)
iThe ultimate reason why we do not have a high speed rail system is because of our exceptionally high standard of living which enables many people to own cars and have access to cheap gas. Of course the interstate system plays a large part too. Countries which have great public transport systems usually have cost prohibitive individual transportation, for example japan's cost of gas is easily twice ours. Another example is Singapore which has a great subway system with satellite tv on its buses and trains, airconditioned,etc, however after taxes the cost of a car there is 3 times what it costs over here. There is NO other country in the world where the population can own the large amounts of gas guzzlers like SUV's that we do, simply because our standard of living in relation to our cost is so high. Go travel arnd the world, and you will see very few people owns SUV or even talk about them. I have been on the TGV in france, shinkansen in Japan, maglev in shanghai, yeah its great but so what? I rather drive down in my own car and smoke a cigar in it whenever i want instead of squeezing arnd with tons of people. Why the hell would anyone want that? Obama seeks to ruin our high standard of living and he must be stopped.