Transportation in this country just sucks

[spinbaby]

I'm sitting in airport. My Connecting flight is delayed three hours because of weather in some other part of the country. I've just come off a flight from Asia, I've been up 24 hours now, I'm really tired and cranky, and I can't travel that last 200 miles to get home soon because airlines schedule their flights so tightly that bad weather anywhere (and there's always bad weather somewhere) delays flights everywhere. In Japan I casually hopped on a train--no reservation or security line required--to travel hundreds of miles. Why the hell do we have such inconvenient and cumbersome transportation in the states?

[Rollo]

1. OK

Last edited Thu Apr 13, 2017, 07:37 PM - Edit history (1)

Reasons:

1) Powerful automotive/trucking/highway lobby

2) Powerful airline/airport lobby

3) Powerful oil/gas lobby

4) Reactionary racist classists who think high speed regional rail will bring more poor/crime to their communities. Haven't they heard of different classes of train seats?

And Trump wants to bankrupt passenger rail travel...!

[Sunlei]

20. I suggest trying travel by bus. Fast and very comfortable trips.

Not expensive.

[Rollo]

28. Bus no faster than car...

And often slower.

I also have bad memories of traveling by bus coast-coast with no stop-overs back in the early 60's. Not my choice.

Some bus trips might be OK, but there are just not many amenities available on the average commercial passenger bus. A filthy cramped rest closet being one of the few.

The upside may be that a bus can pull over at any time and kick a pseudo senator's ass out the door.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

2. because we're Yuge!

And outside of California and the Northeast our population density is nearly imperceptible.

[Rollo]

6. China and Russia aren't "Yuge"???

China is leapfrogging the USA in high speed rail. It's a national embarrassment for the USA.

Russia has long had passenger rail stretching from Moscow to Vladivostok. Granted, it's probably not high speed, but even the Soviets appreciated the economy and efficiency of rail travel.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

8. I seriously invite you to take the train in Russia

We bailed a day into the trip and flew back to Moscow.

Take a look at China's population density, there is much more of eastern China that can support that type of investment than anywhere in the US.

[Rollo]

11. Bullshit

[Stinky The Clown]

24. Very insightful.

Thanks for sharing.

[Leith]

3. Well, the Great Distances Are a Factor

Would you rather spend a miserable 5 hours on a plane to get from LA to New York for a few hundred dollars or 4 days on a train for probably a higher price?

Trains in Europe and Japan make more sense because of the population density which makes more potential customers. If you are going from Rome to Berlin, for example, when you take time going to the airport and at the airport, security, and flight time into account, you are probably better off on the train that leaves from the city center.

Still, we should expand Amtrak on the East Coast, not defund and destroy it. There should be high speed rail from San Diego to Seattle, too, with spurs going to Las Vegas and Sacramento.

[Stuart G]

4. Of course you are correct with your post..but,

The Republipukes...will never fund those routes..

[Rollo]

5. bad stats

Four days on a train to get from SF to NY?

OK, with current Amtrak slow trains, yes.

But with high speed rail, that time could be as little as 20 hours - basically a day and a night.

But really, people are NOT talking about replacing long distance flights with rail. No, rather, having regional high speed rail, such as the NE already has (but urgently needs upgrading to true HSR), and what California is working on.

There are plenty of high concentration population centers that would benefit as well as California and the NE. For example, the Great Lakes are, linking cities like Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, etc. The south east should not be left behind, with links from DC to Miami. The Mississippi River valley, from New Orleans to Indianapolis, linking to the Great Lakes system at Minneapolis. Over to the Ohio River valley. The benefit of following these water courses is that it's all relatively flat, and relatively highly populated.

And it will happen, because despite the negativism displayed again in this thread, it's the sensible solution for moving people around with minimal ecological damage.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

13. Wow...

I'm sure glad we already tackled universal healthcare and higher education so we have resources to build trains almost as fast as airplanes of a century ago.

It will never happen because it is completely unnecessary.

[Rollo]

14. Actually for some journeys, high speed rail trains will be faster, door-door, than jet planes.

And in general, a whole heck of a lot less stressful on the traveler.

When was the last time a senior citizen with a valid ticket, already seated, forcibly ejected from a train, suffering injuries including missing front teeth and a concussion?

Air travel has become a horrible ordeal. Train travel, in general, is a far more civilized experience.

High speed rail development does not preclude or in any way interfere with progress towards universal healthcare or higher education. If anything, the health benefits of travel by rail will improve healthcare outcomes, and the ability to go from city center to city center without having to deal with the expense, danger, and stress of driving will give passengers better mental acuity for those mid-terms.

And maybe that's the problem here. Too much travel on flying sardine cans has damaged some posters' brains.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

15. Only if the doors are really, really close to the train stations on either end

Going from City Center to City Center is useless for most people because they have absolutely no reason to go to either city center in the first place.

The things that make air travel horrible can be fixed for a lot less than building high-speed rail and with minimal public investment. Building high speed rail it isn't going to be a major funding priority for anybody.

I have actually found a lot of train travel in Europe extremely stressful, my French and German colleagues complain about little else, well that and dog poo.

[Rollo]

18. Thanks for your colorful opinions

[LanternWaste]

23. Less opinions, more allegations... though quite colorful indeed.

Less opinions, more allegations... though colorful indeed.

Happens in every thread re: mass transit-- someone pretends they have absolute knowledge of what will or will not work, never supply objective evidence for the premise, and maintain the pretense of what alleged friends may complain about more than anything else in the world...

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

25. What "objective evidence" do you need that there will never be trillions for high-speed rail?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

26. Thanks for acknowledging your utopian nonsense in just that.

In so many words

[Leith]

21. Yes, They Are Bad Stats

Since I don't have American stats to go on unless you go by the movie Silver Streak (which, admittedly, is all I had to go on).

The southeast route could also be expanded to Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, and eventually extend to Los Angeles. Unfortunately, it would take far longer than the first tracks laid in the 19th century because of government inaction.

Transportation infrastructure in hub cities would also need an unimaginable upgrade to work as it should. Travelers won't want to get off the train in Detroit just to get on a city bus system that doesn't reach to the suburbs.

What you posted was completely reasonable and doable - and what this country needs. With the rethug current state of mind, we will not see it in our lifetimes. They would rather drop multi-million dollar bombs in the hopes of creating more terrorists and accommodate presidential golf outings every weekend.

[Rollo]

22. All fixable

Re: bad bus service: so put in light rail systems, similar to BART in SF Bay Area (but better). There is also a concept called fast bus service which dedicates lanes and has limited stops for buses to make inter-urban treks faster and more efficient. These interconnect at modal stations with rail or other transport systems, and go into parts of communities not served by light or high speed rail. The advantage of fast bus service is that it doesn't require much in the way of infrastructure, just different routing/stops/priorities.

Re: Dallas/Ft Worth, Houston, etc: If I'm not mistaken, Texas is already in the planning stages to link major Texas cities with high speed rail.

[gyroscope]

7. And it keeps getting worse

Deregulation and consolidation of the airline industry is bad enough, but will probably get even worse under a republican WH and congress, along with their defunding of public transportation alternatives. The GOP is hellbent on killing Obama's high speed rail proposals which were modest to begin with.

The airlines have little incentive to improve their miserable service. They have a monopoly on long distance travel, and both parties in their pocket.

[MineralMan]

9. Three hours? Go rent a car and drive there.

Ask other passengers if they want join you and split the cost of a one-way rental. That's what I'd do.

[Rollo]

10. Real high speed rail could do it in 20 hours.

[MineralMan]

16. Not an option right now, and probably not in my lifetime.

[HughBeaumont]

17. I'd love it if we had HSR connecting Cleveland to Chicago, DC, Pittsburgh, Philly or Baltimore.

The whole Northeast/North Coast could be interconnected. Same with the west.

As is, it's now not only less expensive but now less time consuming for me to drive to DC as opposed to flying there. Before, I could fly to BWI for $39-$49 one way. Now, I'm paying more going one way than I did round trip 10-12 years ago. It's just not economical and cheaper flights are all one-stop. Non-stop costs 1.5-2 times as much.

Driving on the PA turnpike is a frustration in it's own right. A majority of that turnpike from the state line to Breezewood is two lanes, so I have to put up with left-lane squatters who either didn't get the memo that the speed limit is now 70 or did and just want to be a bunch of snarky assholes going 65 in the passing lane.

[Sunlei]

19. I agree! Air Flights are horrible in USA. I know lots of people who fly, they all mention delays &

a full day on the front and end of every vacation/business trip spent with the air flight.

If they're flying from or to someplace like Peru or Australia the American part of air travel is where all the delays are. People are exhausted and stressed out.

[sharedvalues]

27. Because government does transit, and GOP donors hate government

Society needs to invest in city-scale transit, it's too big to leave to private corps.
Government is society.
We've seen a 40 year campaign by the wealthy to destroy government so GOP donors can line their pockets at the expense of other Americans.

That's why our transit stinks.