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Yes: Seattle/Portland/Vancouver BC via plane take only about 45 minutes of actual flight time, but 2 hours or so of hassle going through airport nonsense (more
by samfoo 15y ago
Yes: Seattle/Portland/Vancouver BC via plane take only about 45 minutes of actual flight time, but 2 hours or so of hassle going through airport nonsense (more if you cross the border).
The drive is two hours, but a waste of gas and time if you're only going for a weekend. Highspeed rail is the perfect intermediate and at a reasonable price (read: $100 or so round trip) would be well more than enough reason to ditch my car for basically all trips greater than 100 miles.
Just because there are some places in the USA where highspeed rail doesn't make sense doesn't mean that argument extends to the whole country.
- hugh3 15y agoActually you're right, there may well be parts of the US where high-speed rail makes sense. On a project-by-project basis it's certainly an option worth considering. What I take issue with is the idea that because other countries have it that the US needs it too. That's a silly argument. Other countries have medieval castles, ubiquitous bidets and abundant kangaroos, but the US doesn't need those either. (And in fact, only four countries in the world have a high-speed rail network worth a damn -- that's France, Germany, Japan and China).
- samfoo 15y agoIf I'm honest: I mostly want high speed rail because it's badass :-) I've been on HSR in France, Japan and China and always feel like I'm in the future.
- melling 15y agoYou forgot Spain. You might want to look at a map of Europe. I think your info is out of date. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail
- protomyth 15y agoI wouldn't count on HSR not having the same TSA problems that our airports have now. It seems like that is going to be the next big push by Homeland Security.