If I combine a few of the needs for the HSR arguments, I think it comes down to this:
- You claim a working public transport system is needed to support it
- It needs to compete against the car in costs
- It will most probably only work in a densely populated area
- The country needs to be a bit flat in order to make building it easy / less expensive.
Guess what?
We have a working public transportation system; regular (at least once every 30 minutes) train service between most cities and even a lot of tiny towns, connection metro, bus and tram systems in the bigger cities.
We pay about 3x the price for car fuel as those in the US.
I live in one of (if not the) most densely populated countries in the world.
I think our country invented flat.
And yet...
... the high speed rail connection has cost and will cost more (maintenance anyone?) then it will ever produce.
Add to that the argument I gave in my first post: People will start working more and more from home.
I love trains as much as many of you. Having travelled in a high speed train doing over 270km/h, I can say I really like it a lot.
... but knowing how much of our tax money it has cost which will never return makes me hope the US is not so stupid to make the same mistake.
- You claim a working public transport system is needed to support it
- It needs to compete against the car in costs
- It will most probably only work in a densely populated area
- The country needs to be a bit flat in order to make building it easy / less expensive.
Guess what?
We have a working public transportation system; regular (at least once every 30 minutes) train service between most cities and even a lot of tiny towns, connection metro, bus and tram systems in the bigger cities.
We pay about 3x the price for car fuel as those in the US.
I live in one of (if not the) most densely populated countries in the world.
I think our country invented flat.
And yet...
... the high speed rail connection has cost and will cost more (maintenance anyone?) then it will ever produce.
Add to that the argument I gave in my first post: People will start working more and more from home.
I love trains as much as many of you. Having travelled in a high speed train doing over 270km/h, I can say I really like it a lot.
... but knowing how much of our tax money it has cost which will never return makes me hope the US is not so stupid to make the same mistake.
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