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A comment on As the U.S. fantasizes, the world builds high speed rail. Parent comment

Re:As the U.S. fantasizes, the world builds high speed rail by jjeaff on Saturday July 01, 2017 @04:43PM (#14678904)
It's not about cost. Long rails aren't that expensive. The problem is that a train running through Texas is useless unless you want to get to a specific city that the tracks actually pass through. Anywhere else could be hours of driving from the station and there isn't any infrastructure for that. A 4 hour cab/Uber ride is way too expensive.

Even a train that drops you off in the middle of Los Angeles could leave you many hours from the actual place in Los Angeles you want to be.

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Re:As the U.S. fantasizes, the world builds high speed rail by akg_67 on Saturday July 01, 2017 @05:35PM (#14679166)
> The problem is that a train running through Texas is useless unless you want to get to a specific city that the tracks actually pass through.

This argument ignores the new and existing population clusters that form and grow along a transportation link. You only have to look at interstate highway system and how new population clusters formed and existing clusters grew along the links once interstate hwy were built. Just reviewing the I-35, I-10 in Texas will show you that. Same can be seen with local subways and light rails systems. The clusters near stations grow faster than rest of the city.

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Re:As the U.S. fantasizes, the world builds high speed rail by jlarocco on Saturday July 01, 2017 @05:19PM (#14679092)
So basically the reason we don't bother with more HSR is because all of our large cities are unplanned sprawling messes and the rest of our transportation infrastructure is almost just as bad as our HSR.
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Re:As the U.S. fantasizes, the world builds high speed rail by mixmastamyk on Saturday July 01, 2017 @05:32PM (#14679149)
LA is not such a great example anymore because metro/metrolink/flyaway + uber can take you anywhere you want to go from Union Station these days cheaply, sometimes quickly.
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Re:As the U.S. fantasizes, the world builds high speed rail by jjeaff on Monday July 10, 2017 @06:25PM (#14740220)
I wouldn't say cheaply or even that easily. If I have to get off a train (whatever that cost), catch a fly-away bus ($8 both ways), then get an uber ($50+ just to Burbank 12m away), it's going to be very expensive and very slow assuming the stars don't align perfectly.
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