Maybe because no one has figured out how to make a high speed train run on coal - if they did Trump would be for it. There are millions of things that are more needed then the wall. Cheers and happy weekend
I'm not saying you are wrong, but it seems insane. This country is huge. Can't we figure out how to make it work? And I, for one, would rather go somewhere by rail than plane if possible. Oh well.
The US is better suited than Japan in terms of terrain, Come to France, Germany, Austria Intaly however the LIbertarians would bitch about the "Social Subsidies" .
The government is not in the business of building railroads. They would screw it up anyway and costs would be double the estimates, as would the time. The railroad companies would have to build them and they probably see no way to profit from them.
This post was edited by Element 99 at August 4, 2019 6:20 AM MDT
Amtrak runs the Acela Express on the Northeast Corridor route between Boston and Washington, DC. It runs at up to 150 MPH. Is it Trump's fault that this kind of service does not exist in other parts of the US? Is it the federal government's job to make life more convenient for everyone, regardless of cost?
I think if we can waste time worrying about a stupid useless wall, we could use that money that is basically going down the drain and either burn it or make something useful since the government is not doing one useful thing with any of its money.
Medicare and Medicaid aren't useful? What about national defense, federally guaranteed student loans, and subsidized mortgages to assist lower-income homebuyers? The list goes on. Where have you been? Oversimplify much? And nobody seems to be in a hurry to build the wall.
Medicare is my money that I gave the government, which they wasted. I will not live long enough to get it back. I'm still paying off my student loan after 25 years.
Same reason Australia doesn't have it - the distances are too great. Maintenance costs would be the killer - all of Japan would fit into California, so it works there.
I wish I had noted the reference but I stumbled across an interesting and very balanced short documentary on the subject, on an American news-channel's web-site.
It mentioned the Acela servicer and the line being built in California, but pointed out that national and commercial investment in the railways of the USA was hit hard by a massive push in the 1940s and 50s to encourage car-ownership and road transport. And of course you have extensive internal air services.
A somewhat similar thing happened in the UK in the 1960s when a strong pro-road lobby and poor financial and management at Government level hampered the then-State owned British Railways efforts to invest the trading profits it was actually making on many routes.
A point to make though is that the UK and most of Europe did not leap to 'High-Speed Railways 'per se, in one bound; and I am very surprised the US does not seem to have instigated an equivalent policy. It is this:
These countries instead built 'High Speed Trains' that run on existing lines, albeit with suitably up-graded tracks and signalling. One aspect there is the use of continuously-welded rail and overhead-wire electrification, but I realise these may be problematical in parts of the States that experience far wider annual temperature ranges than much of NW Europe - though recent unusually hot weather has caused problems here.
These first-generation HSTs and their developments do not use fully-separate locomotives. Instead they use a rake of coaches with an electric or diesel "power car" styled to match the coaches, at each end. The power-car's transmission is fully-reversible and has its own driving-cab, so no need to run-round or turn anything at the destination. The driver simply walks to the other end of the train to drive it back.
They are far-going developments of the Electric or Diesel Multiple-Unit concept already well proven, although the MU has its motors or engines below the coach floors, with a driving-cab in the corner of the first and last coach of the consist.
Running speeds? Depending on route, most of the DMUs on UK's Network Rail are speeded up to 70mph. The 1st-generation HST was called the HST-125, referring to its top speed. Later versions can go faster where track limits allow. This may seem modest but remember the whole British mainland will fit into a rectangle about 800 X 300 miles; and the rail network serves a very large number of towns and cities within half that area.
Notably too, all the UK's railways are fenced, and where level-crossings are unavoidable, their automatic gates close some time before the train reaches them. Where possible roads, and all our motorways, cross railways by bridges. I understand these precautions are very rare in the States, hence many collisions of trains with cars that should not be on the crossing at the time.
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Britain or at any rate England, is starting to build its very own High-Speed Railway, called HS2; but it is extremely controversial on planning, environmental, financial and frankly, need, grounds; with many calling it a Governmental vanity-project. Tellingly, unless it's changed recently, its Board of Directors are all "back-office" types: yes you need Directors of Finance, Legal and Personnel (called by that downright ugly 'Human Resources'), but a 'Director of Strategic Partnerships', and not a single Chartered Engineering post....? It is claimed it will cut journeys between London and Birmingham, perhaps 150 miles I think, by all of 15 minutes over the present fastest, though the saving will be more significant for cities further North. For passengers only, even business leaders have opined it will not be as useful as the politicians think, to business. Its main advantage may be relieving congestion on the existing network.
So although a High-Speed line, Japanese-style, would be feasible technically for the States (I think My2cents wrong on the terrain point, but may be right about demand); I think it would be very uneconomical to build, and Slartibartfast right about the maintenance costs and difficulties at continental scale. Instead, the way on would be to develop the pattern of HST used in the UK and Europe, so although you'd need to spend a lot of money on maintaining existing routes to appropriate standards, you don't need the cost of completely new, dedicated routes.
It may worth considering what the USA intends to do in a few decades' time too, possibly under international pressure, about large-scale electrification to replace using diesel traction. I am aware Donald Trump thinks the climate is not changing by human activity but unfortunately everyone else agrees it is, and that using coal and oil fuels cannot continue. The UK's recently-outgone Prime Minister, Theresa May, once stated she'd like the UK railways to be all-electric within the next couple of decades - possibly over-optimistic but a sign of what is happening around the world.
I live in the land of great subsidized transport. The same could be done in the US in populated corridors to relieve Road Congestion.
We Subsidize Railroads etc to get the cars off the road. Gas here is around $5.00 a gallon. Our Nova tax is $1000 €, new car purchase tax which is used for public transportation. To wit:
My annual transport pass for local trains, buses, and trams is 468€ per year, My Voortiels card, think discount railway card, 50% off normal price long distance train travel across the EU and UK.. It is 66€ per year
To reduce the carbon footprint public transport is encouraged. My Eurostar ticket 2 weeks ago was 58.60 instead of 240€ Paris to London. I drive and need a car to get to places not services by public transport.
Now the networks are not as extensive as they were in the 70's. We are at 50% or thereabouts reduction in trackage, with only an 11% reduction in rail miles traveled. Currently the systems are expanding both in City and out of city to meet the increased demand.
A curious note regarding transport use in the US. On all new systems demand exceeds capacity with in 2 years. Portland, OR; Washington DC, Minneapolis, MN. There is a horrific fight not to build out new systems since someones O x will get gored. The lies told about High Speed intercity are awful. We hate the time back in the States for this reason.
my2cents 