Comments on: Is it Time to Properly Fund Passenger Rail in the United States?

By: bennett

bennett — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:20:14 +0000

Amen! Recreating reliable and cost effective passenger rail in the USA is long overdue. Europe, South Korea, Japan and China are in the forefront of today’s developments for urban light rail, high speed electric, bullet trains etc. India, with a huge population and enormous transport challenges has an effective nation wide electric rail system. Ditto for Russia. The United States does not need to reinvent the wheel. It does need to stop, look, listen and integrate the best that other countries have deployed into a new approach for the nation’s passenger rail service.

This page has good links to light rail, high speed electric RR, bullet trains and Maglev in Europe and Asia – http://www.ahrtp.com/HallofFameOnline1/EarlyRRLinks2.htm

By: Theodore

Theodore — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:00:07 +0000

The potentially fatal limitation of the current rail transport system is the fact that all the cars in a train are required to go to one destination.

Imagine if this limitation were applied to the trucking industry. There would be convoy organizers in convoy assembly yards telling truck drivers which convoy to join. Every few minutes a convoy would be off to a destination that would satisfy only a small minority of the drivers. We can all agree that this is absurd, but regularly tolerate this limitation in rail service.

Flexibility is the key to popularity. Public acceptance is the key to a self-supporting, prosperous future for the rail industry. Every vehicle must be able to go to its unique destination without any limitations from adjacent vehicles.

We don’t need high speed trains or magnetic levitation. They are solutions to problems of little importance. They are simply ways of doing it wrong at a higher rate of speed.

We need reconceptualization for the purpose of flexible operation. We need to start over fresh with a new computer-compatible transportation concept. Connected rail cars only made sense until computer control became available. Now it does not.

By: Theodore

Theodore — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:06:15 +0000

We need to replace rail passenger service and freight completely with something like a scaled-up “personal rapid transit” system. You should be able to drive your car to a rail port and onto a platform with a set of wheels. Using a console inside your car, you should indicate your destination, push a button and then relax till you get there. Driverless loads, each separatly targeted to their individual destination should be continuously tracked by the owner. There should be many variations of design for the vehicles, but only one common track design. Such a system could replace 100% of current rail service, 60% of air transport, and 90% of long-distance automobile traffic. Rental cars that run directly on the track, privately owned motor homes, platforms for private cars without rail-compatible wheels and rental hotel rooms with a garage for the car should all be run on the same tracks, intermingled with freight.

By: PhilL

PhilL — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:21:56 +0000

We had one or more in Ohio, especially the east west line back in the late 1800s-early 1900s, but the cars came and they decided to do way with the rail. The mounds from underneath the old rail can still be seen in some places.

No the talk is to restart a rail service, but the funds are not there yet.

By: Tired Of Their Lies

Tired Of Their Lies — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:31:39 +0000

Agreed! It costs more to ride the train, than it does the airlines .. with a sleep cab. I don’t want to see the price tag of the tickets. Here in the NorthWest, our politicans give us a price tag on a project, than triple the cost (AFTER they’ve begun), then they like to CANCEL the projects *COUGH* monorail, and our stadiums.. leaving us with unfinished projects to pay for! Our Government should of planned for this a LONG TIME AGO!

By: GameGrrl

GameGrrl — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:28:14 +0000

Our country should of planned for this a LOOOONG time ago, not now .. it’s almost too late! Here in the Northwest, they want to FINALLY build a light rail .. but it’s going to cost way too much. Our politicians always tell us one cost, but then go WAAAAY OVER Budget by Millions of dollars, then usually can the idea, because it’s costing too much money and we’re always stuck with unfinished projects .. *COUGH* our stadiums … and monorail… no more needs to be said.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:53:06 +0000

Actually the infrastructure is already in place, but as the story mentions it’s just completely outdated. Our whole rail infrastructure needs to be double tracked so that Amtrak and Freight carriers don’t have to suffer from the delays that currently hamper their business.

By: Gigs

Gigs — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:44:24 +0000

There is one other thing you didn’t mention… the cost of tickets. The train easily costs *more* than flying, especially if you get a sleeper cab. Even coach is often the same or more than an equivalent air ticket.

I agree that rail in the US is in a sad state. I’d rather see a solution that lets the free market invest in infrastructure rather than taxpayer money though. Socialism of the rails got us into this mess, I don’t see how more socialism is the answer for getting us out.

By: Rob O.

Rob O. — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:50:52 +0000

We were just discussing this – in a roundabout sorta way – yesterday when the topic of high fuel costs came up yet again. One of the guys mentioned that Europeans have been dealing with much higher gas prices for a very long time. I made the comment that in most European countries, they have excellent rail systems to help offset that problem. Not only are the trains there reported to be very cost-efficient, but punctual as well.

I do think we need to revisit this as a partial solution here in the U.S. We do need to expand our long-distance mass transit options. The infrastructure is already in place, so why not make use of this ignored resource?