Print

Welcome, Guest

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[NightmarePatrol]

On Thursday President Obama is going to be in Tampa to make a rumored announcement about another federal project. The inside track says it will be to award Florida the funding for a high speed rail between Tampa and Orlando and eventually beyond. While I think high speed rail is undeniably something the US needs, is this the right time? In my lifetime I have seen the demise of heavy rail from an institution to a businesses hanging on by a thread. There are advantages of shipping by truck, but the cost is steep. Would not this money be better spent by putting it back into the shipping infrastructure rather than building 100 miles of track for a 200 mph train that will probably have a few stops on the way?

It just seems like a waste to me at this point in time. Maybe I just don't see the big picture or maybe I actually see the forest.

[CindyLouWho]

There is a hi speed rail that oes from Princeton into NYC that is cool.  There are two side by side actually.  A slower one that stops many times alon the way and the hi speed one that is a straiht shot.  One costs more than the other.  You can et a monthly pass for either.  One in Newark.  Trenton.  They see a lot of traffic and I'm sure enerate a cash flow.  Towns are lookin for cash flow.  And where else to take advantae of this than a fat tourist trap? 

[Lifetime]

I can see a need to bring back the rails but.... for now I think it should be primarily for freight. Here is my thinking.... One maybe two Train Engines to haul more freight long distance than maybe 100 trucks. This is what I see.... trucks needed to get the items from a Train Depot system to more local areas and free up some long distant truck routes. Meaning the trucks would be used for more local delivery from the depots. I think this would even help the use of fuels as opposed to coast to coast use of a truck haul...long distant OTR. And in this manner... cut down on the fees involved...be they from fuel use but also toll fees and other overhead.
 
What are we bitching about here in PA right now..... the Enemy of the People of America... known as EPA has imposed crap rules on us for pollution. Truck firms are hollaring about the extra tax they pay to utilize the conncrete thread and in the end... all of this is passed onto the end consumer...US. What is more high maintainance in the long run.... steel rails or our highways? I am not in the paygrade to determine that but smart enough to listen and discern this if given honest information and that which is not skewed to favor one side or the other.
 
One problem I see is this.... since the years following WWII, we have enjoyed the fact that we can jump into our personal people carriers and go on a trip. In that time, the rails have died as people carriers... AMTRAK is one of the biggest Money Pits we have. Our Government, using OUR MONEY subsidizes the tickets sold to the point that the subsidy is much larger than what the customer pays out of pocket. Hmmmmm. One of the reasons...though not the main one ( military), we have, our highway system is for use of our POVs and trucking/busing. We wanted it and we were willing to pay for it in the form of various taxes ( OUR MONEY). Now we have to study a less expensive way to haul our arses and the junk we need to the destinations we want. What are we willing to accept...those pregnant rollerskates like the smart car going 65 top end or a lounge chair for our rears on a vehicle doing 200mph ? 

[TiFeMb]

The problem with THIS particular rail is that it doesn't serve a purpose. There aren't a lot of people that will get out of their cars to drive between Tampa and Orlando.
 
Where it NEEDS to go is from Tallahassee - Gainesville - Orlando - Miami, with another that connects Daytona- Orlando - Tampa.
 
That would give a lot of people options to get out of their cars AND planes, it's nearly impossible to get around Florida reasonably by air without connecting to Atlanta.
 
There's another idea, just High Speed Rail I75 and I95.
 
This one's a boondoggle. I have a lot of friends who will benefit and I am still against it.
 
*oh, and anywhere there are more than 2 lanes of traffic going the same direction, 1 lane should be dedicated to bicycles. *

[lifefeedsonlife]

*oh, and anywhere there are more than 2 lanes of traffic going the same direction, 1 lane should be dedicated to bicycles. *

I like that idea

[TiFeMb]

*oh, and anywhere there are more than 2 lanes of traffic going the same direction, 1 lane should be dedicated to bicycles. *

I like that idea

Almost every road down here is multi lane with a median down the middle. I can actually get around pretty good, just some of the shoping area get jammed with idiot drivers.

Imagine riding your bike back and forth to Erie on I79....or even Pgh, it's only 90 miles....

[Jayhawk]

What is more high maintainance in the long run.... steel rails or our highways?

Highways.

AMTRAK is one of the biggest Money Pits we have. Our Government, using OUR MONEY subsidizes the tickets sold to the point that the subsidy is much larger than what the customer pays out of pocket.

In fairness, each of the top 10 airlines in recent years probably has lost more money each year than Amtrak. Let us also not forget things list post-9/11 airline subsidies as well as the government billions spent on airports and control systems.

Overall, federal air and highway spending/subsidies absolutely dwarfs anything spent on railroads, and part of the reason the rail corridors are in such bad shape is that there was no money for maintenance and upgrades.

[Zipper]

Imagine riding your bike back and forth to Erie on I79....or even Pgh, it's only 90 miles....

I have a California friend that bikes over 100 miles.... up hills, down hills... for fun. He could easily go from Meadville to Pittsburgh, or to Erie and back. He had to work up to it of course, but he and a whole group of them do it every weekend.

[E-L Man]

The railroads are making money,,,,,they just don't put it back into the plant.

[CindyLouWho]

Ya know, for a couple weeks while the weather was really nasty, I did not hear the train come throuh at all.  They run throuh my woods and it's close.....can't miss that train whistle if you want to, ya know?   I noticed last week when the weather started to warm up suddenly it was back.   Did I just not notice cause I was so focused on the shitty weather or what was up with that?  This thin is like clock work.....twice a day in summer but I only hear him once a day in winter.

[E-L Man]

CLW< normally they run a local from Sharo to Meadville with cars for Stoney Point up into PPG and John Mansville. Plus 2 coal trains a day from Pittsburgh to Gangs Mills, NY and two emptys back. Could have been the wind knocking trees over the tracks. Normally following a storm the Maintenance of Way crews inspect the rails in what they call a "Hi-railer" "i.e. a pickup truck on railroad wheels with chainsaw and other tools to correct the problem. Just bad weather such as a lot of snow doesn't deter the trains. Like when we hit a huge snow drift at 40 miles an hour, ya don't see anything out the windshield for about 3 or 4 minutes. Eerie! Just a few ideas. Don't really know except that rail line doesn't have the high priority that it used to.

[CindyLouWho]

I know he's comin throuh cause usually he blows the whistle a lon time cause when he is behind my house he is comin up on a curve that is near a road crossin......I suppose I just wasn't outside too much durin that stint of shitty weather.  My husband and I both find the sound of the train comin throuh kinda soothin as we both rew up listenin to a train nearby.  He lived riht next to tracks in New Castle as a kid.

[Zipper]

Train Snow Plowing (slip)

 
 

[NightmarePatrol]

Well, here is the early press release.

[NightmarePatrol]

It's official, Florida gets 1.25 billion smackaroo's to build something that probably won't get much use.