Choo choo twitter is adorable! It's like watching our pug get angry. Anywho, yeah you can probably do a train from Barcelona to Moscow, but . . . I'm guessing you almost never would, which is the point. It's why national HSR is silly.
You'd think that it would be significantly easier to build a train between the US coasts than through several sovereign nations, but what do I know, I'm just a choo choo.
Holy shit the arguments against high speed trains in that thread are so fucking nonsensical.
- "Few people take long distance trains!" So? They still exist, meaning they're not impossible. Also not all high speed rail needs to run across the whole country, you can build shorter lines you know, like in Europe?
- China is as large as the US and has high speed rail. "But in China the tracks are concentrated between places with high population density, western China has almost no tracks!" Then do the same in the US?
- "But we have mountain ranges!". That wasn't a problem in the 19th century. "Back then trains were the only choice, now they're not!" Europe has mountains too and it built high speed rail. "But in Europe tracks are built outside of mountains, they only cross through the mountains at certain points where it's absolutely necessary!" Then do the same! What the fuck? Why can't they think 5 seconds before they post?
Few people take long-distance trains
Because they're expensive and slow in the US lol that's what building a bunch of high speed rail is supposed to fix.
“But we have mountain ranges!”
This is why trains don't exist in Switzerland, Italy, or Germany.
Oh... no, wait.
Yeah because the sheer size of the US hasn't stopped us from building an interstate highway system that sees barely any traffic outside of urban centers, and has stretches of road that haven't seen upkeep in decades
Love that classic response of getting owned and then pretending it was all an elaborate troll
Did you guys know that after 100 miles of rail a train just mysteriously poofs into nothingness?
Better put down a lot of stations so there's no uninterrupted vanishing distance
It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of car dependence.
Just glossing right over the fact that there are also trains to take you far away from Paris
there's usually direct trains, covid has made everything slower
"i have done no research into this question, but the answer is obvious to me. i work for a neolib thinktank btw."
Wow cool point, dumbass. There are several interconnected railway networks in that shape. Do they just think they all stop at the border? Pretty sure you could get from Spain to Russia on almost entirely high speed rail if you wanted. Why do people act like the only travel they ever do is from New York to LA?
for the most part it would be the only travel they do, they never consider anyone else has other places to be, or would benefit from the various connections.
It’s actually worse because a ton of the media class dipshits who are doing this are basically constantly taking short hop flights around the coasts where most of the high speed rail would be.
Not really a main point to any argument, but god forbid there be a pretty vista to see they wont just fly over
Pretty high speed in Western Europe, trains slow down a bit in Eastern Europe.
Why do people act like the only travel they ever do is from New York to LA?
Imagine a HSR train between... oh, I don't know, NY and Philly? Or upgrade the Accela from Boston to DC? Or what if we did the Texas T - Houston / San Antonio / Austin / Dallas? I-95 runs from New York to Miami. Surely we could get some use value out of a parallel rail route.
Dozens of viable options. But we can't do them because we are a Car Culture.
Going to start saying that the US is too spread out for a multi-lane highway system to work here like the Autobahn did in Germany.
But yeah, a lot of existing highway corridors make sense as rail corridors, or in many cases actually parallel an existing conventional rail corridor because the cities it's connecting only grew because of their rail connections.
Also hilarious is the Republicans trying to make fun of HSR by comparing Texas to Europe when there is a private company, Texas Central, who thinks that they can construct a private high speed line from Dallas to Houston that would be able to be profitable, and pretty much every Texas Republican politician has supported them. There may be a chance they break ground before the end of the year.
There may be a chance they break ground before the end of the year.
I have been hearing this promise since 2012
Yeah, I know famously delayed, but it seems like they actually have almost all of the necessary permits, and the FRA approval. I think they basically just need to finish acquiring right of way to start building.
That's been an ongoing struggle, as municipalities have been polarized against rail. They neither want the rail for their districts nor do they want business to be diverted by a rail line going through another district.
Yeah, I've been following it a bit. Definitely seems like the inertia is Texas Central's favor for the moment. The NIMBYs kind of seem to be flailing at this point. I think there's a pretty good chance they break ground next year, I have serious doubts about this year, but they may start being able to hire.
Well, fingers crossed. I have friends in Dallas and I'd love to take a quick train ride up rather than a long drive or an obnoxiously difficult plane
This has a bit of a point, when people praise European rail it's probably high speed rail within a country or that goes to a neighboring country. Not whatever train that goes from France to Kazakhstan.
Issue is the US does not even have regional high speed rail. France is banning domestic flights where a train can make the journey is 2.5 hours but the lack of high speed rail makes that not an option in the US just now
This has a bit of a point, when people praise European rail it’s probably high speed rail within a country or that goes to a neighboring country. Not whatever train that goes from France to Kazakhstan.
It's literally easier to do that in the US lol. There is all sorts of issues with trying to build rail that goes between numerous countries, especially when there is a bunch of huge mountain ranges between these countries.
I agree it is easier because the US also uses one track type which can be an issue with trains moving internationally.
Even if there isn't the problem of different track types, there are bound to be many major disagreements between the different countries it passes through, and possibly border checks etc. It's kind of a headache, especially if it goes outside the EU too.
This has a bit of a point, when people praise European rail it’s probably high speed rail within a country or that goes to a neighboring country. Not whatever train that goes from France to Kazakhstan.
That "probably"
Might not look like it, but the lower 48 are smaller than Europe, so what's their point? A lot of that is barely populated parts of russia, but that goes for the US too, you don't even have to do the middle of the us, just putting trains along the coasts would do a lot
A lot of that is barely populated parts of russia
I wonder whether taking the trans Siberian from Moscow to Vladivostok is easier than taking a train from NYC to LA.
