Talks of a Dallas to Houston high-speed rail has been ongoing for some time now. Hopefully, it will come to fruition.
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Another waste of taxpayer money!
Originally Posted by Hot Water:
Another waste of taxpayer money!
I agree!!!!!!!
I respectfully disagree, I think that would be one of the few instances where taxpayer money would be put to good use, for a change. Especially considering all the money that taxes are wasted on. The big list is here.
(provided the public will use this train as much as advertised).
I thought a private company (JR Central) was behind this proposed line.
I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but...
IMHO:
The Houston-Dallas corridor is one portion of the U.S. landscape for which the dollars (if they really were available!!) would be better spent creating an Autobahn-style highway. For those of us who have driven/experienced travel on the European Autobahn, there is hardly any portion of the current U.S. Interstate Highway system that can rival the engineering and management of this iconic roadway.
To be sure there are portions of the current interstate system (Montana, Nevada) where 'safe & prudent' speeds are allowed, but the standards and engineering to which the road was built is not the same as that of the autobahn. As much as the rail-mavens would like to elevate their favorite transportation technology, the highway system, which caters better to the preferred U.S. mode of intercity travel, is lagging. Not all areas of our country's geography are suited to 'experimentation' of a major highway improvement such as this. Houston-Dallas might be a good candidate.
On all these daydreams of U.S. high speed rail, I always ask myself 'So, after they arrive in blazing time at the ?-located terminus, what do they do/use to get to their ultimate destination?' It all has to work together to work at all. Again, IMHO.
But, even as I push the "submit reply' button, I know where this will go.
KD
Just because we're ignoring you doesn't mean that we agree with you.
The train - great idea.
The study - complete waste of money, except for those getting the payoffs. And after all, isn't that the whole point of proposing most high speed trains?
Sigh.
/Mitch
As a person who lives in Houston, I voted against an $8 per year increase in property taxes to save the Astrodome as did a majority of people. If they want to build this, good luck getting voters to fund it.
