High speed trains...

[mrsleeve]

I see I will have to keep that in mind ;)

[einhander]

^
On this we are in agreement totally



40b / 100 bucks a ticket would take 400 million tickets sold just to recoup the construction costs, let alone the 10's of millions a year in operational costs.

USA today reported April of this year that Amtrak Acela routes in the NE carried 5.5m people in the 1st 2 quarters, so that 11m people a year where there are many more large and populace cities to service for ridership . If you want use the acela routes as a benchmark its going to take nearly 40 years to recoup a cost of construction alone with your 40b figure, which I think is a more realistic number to build such a contrivance in CA. With a moderate cost of 100 bucks a fare. I have traveled across most of the country on Amtrak for 198 bucks before....................

I actually agree with you on most things. I just like antagonizing you.

[mrsleeve]

^
On this we are in agreement totally



40b / 100 bucks a ticket would take 400 million tickets sold just to recoup the construction costs, let alone the 10's of millions a year in operational costs.

USA today reported April of this year that Amtrak Acela routes in the NE carried 5.5m people in the 1st 2 quarters, so that 11m people a year where there are many more large and populace cities to service for ridership . If you want use the acela routes as a benchmark its going to take nearly 40 years to recoup a cost of construction alone with your 40b figure, which I think is a more realistic number to build such a contrivance in CA. With a moderate cost of 100 bucks a fare. I have traveled across most of the country on Amtrak for 198 bucks before....................

[einhander]

Fares would be prohibitively high for general usage and would be a thing for the richers..........

Perfect. No more smelly proles fucking up my business travel.

Improving the air travel is easier, cheaper, and will have more benefit to the traveler. It's the way to go. High speed rail is a glamour project outside of the NE Corridor.

[Dozyproductions]

How or where do you figure the numbers for usage and fare price?

[mrsleeve]

Not that I dont disagree with that assessment, at that price tag it will never recoup those costs plus its operational costs in its service life........ Fares would be prohibitively high for general usage and would be a thing for the richers..........

[Dozyproductions]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

On the cost for that, is way too fucking low. TransCanada is wanting to spend about 8 BILLION to build a 36" diameter tube that is made out of steel, and going to be buried in the fucking ground. The Aleskya consortium spent about 8 billion in the late 70'- early 80's to build a 48" steel tube that moves fucking oil, and 3/4 of that one is at least above the ground. Granted these are much longer in distance but many times less complex than an air hockey table people moving tube.

You really think with the labor rates in CA and the land values to get the route, and build something big enough to move people in-mass at speed safely is going to cost 6b......... Job I just came off of Contractor was getting just shy of 3/4 of B to install 120 miles of 20" pipeline, JUST INSTALL Gas company bought the materials and this is OHIO.


I see a cost over run of at least 200% to get it built.

Even if the hyper loop's actual cost soared to $40 billion it would still be something worth looking into considering the 'estimated' $68 billion cost for the CHSR's phase 1.

The hyper loop's average projected speed is at least 3 times faster than the projected average speed for the Sacramento to L.A segment.

Another plus is that it would be the first of it's kind in the world and truly put us in the spotlight for innovation.

Researching it's feasibility wouldn't be such a shot in the dark. /the dreared mention of CHSR

[mrsleeve]

Hyperloop FTW.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

On the cost for that, is way too fucking low. TransCanada is wanting to spend about 8 BILLION to build a 36" diameter tube that is made out of steel, and going to be buried in the fucking ground. The Aleskya consortium spent about 8 billion in the late 70'- early 80's to build a 48" steel tube that moves fucking oil, and 3/4 of that one is at least above the ground. Granted these are much longer in distance but many times less complex than an air hockey table people moving tube.

You really think with the labor rates in CA and the land values to get the route, and build something big enough to move people in-mass at speed safely is going to cost 6b......... Job I just came off of Contractor was getting just shy of 3/4 of B to install 120 miles of 20" pipeline, JUST INSTALL Gas company bought the materials and this is OHIO.


I see a cost over run of at least 200% to get it built.

[ficklerx]

Hyperloop FTW.

The concept looks great although the cost estimates seem a bit cheap.

This reminded me of a Christmas present from when I was a kid. I googled a while to find 'Rocket Tubes' from 1979. Unfortunately, it never worked as well as it looked.

[rwh11385]

Only two lines in the entire world are profitable. And the gov't would screw up the ease of train travel just like they have with air travel.

Which ones are you referring to?

The profitable line I rode one was fantastic and comfortable.

nrubenstein, how do you not get this?

I don't think you or sleeve get his point and are exchanging it for what you think his argument is.

There's lines that make profit and those who don't. Focusing on the ones that don't make profit does not mean that any new lines necessarily have to flounder... just like how there being empty flights on some routes do not mean that a new direct service elsewhere cannot be successful...


The talk of transcontinental HSR is a bit silly since there aren't a lot of stops of note in the "fly over states" and most would probably still travel coast-to-coast via airplane... but regional lines can make sense. Acela has a 75% share of air/train travel between DC and NYC. A bit of this is because the shorter a flight is, the most time is spent in security, pre-boarding, and picking up your bag (wasted), while that percentage of a long flight had a low percentage of total travel time. And it helps to have good public transport on both ends.

Why should the rest of the country subsidize my vacation flights?

It's not so much vacation flights since flights from metro areas to hubs and hubs to vacation destinations would probably get along fine on their own... but it is more like Essential Air Service paying for air routes from BFE Montana and other rural areas that are heavily subsidized and wouldn't exist if the free market determined their availability. Those flights are like the routes that Amtrak supports even if it doesn't make financial sense if they had a choice in the matter.

[einhander]

High speed rail is a money losing business in most of the world... and so is flying. Aviation consumes less capital, less land and oh yeah, it can cross oceans. On the other hand the TSA would like to examine you colon every time you get on a plane but I'm sure they would do the same thing with high speed rail if we had that.



I see you have no idea what you're talking about.

I see you have no idea how airline pricing works.

[slammin.e28]

Hyperloop FTW.

Was waiting for that to pop in.

[herbivor]

Hyperloop FTW.

[slammin.e28]

I only fly if I need to cross oceans.

I really just like driving where I have to go. Simple. I'll be driving to Omaha in the spring, and back again.

[BraveUlysses]

No, I just don't like flying. Big planes, that is. Cessnas and the like are fine. I guess it's just a thing where if one guy didn't check one little thing on a 767 the entire thing goes down no survivors. Every Cessna I've flown in (mom and dad got their pilots license at one time) I've been there to go over the plane with them in the pre-flight check.

Nothing to do with terrorists.

Also hate being stuck in a tube with some greasy motherfucker pressed into my shoulder and terrible movies on repeat for 15 hours.

When I flew to Paris I just got really drunk and went to sleep.

When I flew to Beijing I was too young to drink, and it was terrible.

Commercial air flight is extremely safe (has had enormous strides in the past 15 years) and you're much safer in a larger airplane than a regional jet.

You're out of your mind if you don't think that airlines will check a regional jet more thoroughly than a large one.