Why do we have one of the WORST Railway systems in the world?
- Thread starter avatar33
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Unions & high land cost.
They built a new rail line in California at a cost of tens of billions of dollars. The result was a system that wasn't any faster than driving at immensely higher cost.
They built a new rail line in California at a cost of tens of billions of dollars. The result was a system that wasn't any faster than driving at immensely higher cost.
Well that's not a bullet train my friend. We already have rusty slow ass trains that no one wants to take. It's called Amtrak.
I'm talking about top of the line bullet trains that hit speeds of 200mph. Wouldn't you gladly pay a little bit more to travel 3 times faster than your car while having a beer at the train's bar?
Trains already travel from the UK to France in a tunnel under the English Channel and Singapore is already connected to Malaysia by train.
I know a few people that regularly take the high speed train from Malaga to Madrid for both business and pleasure. It costs slightly more than flying and it takes a little less than 3 hours to cover 500 some odd km. You walk on downtown, you walk off downtown, often within a few blocks of your hotel. They love it because of the convenience and comfort and it doesn't take a lot longer than flying when you take into account the bullshit you have to go through at the airports. It's these kinds of distances that are perfect for taking the train.
What parts of that route need to be completed? I'm surprised it's not possible do that trip right now
Not at triple the price of an airplane flight, which is probably what it'd be in Canada.
There's definitely some good potential routes throughout the US, but for Canada? I could *maybe* see hooking up Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, but even that would be a stretch. What else? I guess maybe Calgary -> Vancouver, but that's over 950km of high-speed track, plus through the Rockies. Not cheap.
Other than that, there's not much else in Canada. You're not going to hookup Calgary and Edmonton, because Hwy 2 does the job just fine. And nobody is putting down the money for a Regina -> Winnipeg route anytime soon.
If there's any transportation route that should be opened up more, it's Vancouver -> Victoria. Those ferries are a pain. Get a bridge, underwater tunnel, something.
Agreed. I can totally see hooking up Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, but certainly not Vancouver to Calgary. Once you enter the realm of 1000km trips it no longer becomes attractive to take the train, even if it is going 200kmh. Flying is cheaper and takes much less time, even with the added airport hassles. I think the train is perfect for 500km trips though if they can keep it competitive with flying.
Oh, there's probably some kind of track there, but I'm talking about China's 200+ MPH track. The PRC will own the track and all trains on it, and will make a killing off selling tickets/cargo to the rest of Eurasia for trains that go through their own land.
Keep in mind that the reason that the US rose to such heights was because in the first half of the 1800s they put down more railroad across this country than anyone though would be feasible. It was literally the world's largest infrastructure project, dwarfing all others minus perhaps the Grand canal in china.
Those trains made a lotta different companies so rich it's literally incalcuable. We're talking quadrillions of today's dollars, each.
Now china's not just content to do the same across their own, larger country, but they're also going to keep going for all connected land across both continents! They'll make so much money selling cargo freight on these tracks that the rest of the world could very well wind up indebted to them, completely, for eternity.
In short, they could very literally take over the world with this project.
Good luck, Bros.
200MPH/300KPH
1000km would take only 3.5 hours, not too bad and the views would be awesome.
Fair enough. The Spanish trains max out at around 250kmh but the French ones do 320kmh (TGV - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), so I guess trips up to 1000km are still practical. Nevertheless, Kiopa makes a good point that crossing the Rockies with high speed rail lines would be a massive and very expensive engineering project.
One small route I could potentially see happening in the next decade or so is a downtown Calgary -> Banff route. I wonder why it hasn't happened yet? National Park restrictions, maybe? I'm sure there's loads of support for it from both, Calgary and Banff businesses.
Would be good though. Downtown Calgary to Banff in 25 mins. Japanese family comes for a ski vacation, during the day grandma can easily head off and go shopping at Eaton Center. Or everyone living in downtown Calgary can easily hit the slopes for a day, or tourists on ski vacation can stay in Calgary instead of trying to find a hotel in Banff, which is next to impossible during high season.
Then again, you'd probably end up with wall-to-wall people on the hills, so maybe not a great idea.
Would be good though. Downtown Calgary to Banff in 25 mins. Japanese family comes for a ski vacation, during the day grandma can easily head off and go shopping at Eaton Center. Or everyone living in downtown Calgary can easily hit the slopes for a day, or tourists on ski vacation can stay in Calgary instead of trying to find a hotel in Banff, which is next to impossible during high season.
Then again, you'd probably end up with wall-to-wall people on the hills, so maybe not a great idea.