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Re:Houston’s Mayor Was Right to Not Evacuate by brewdad on Tuesday August 29, 2017 @01:07AM (#15122210)
There are no trains. The nearest Amtrak station is in San Antonio. If you made it that far, you are probably already out of danger. As for buses, how do you coordinate bus plans for 6.5 million people across a 50 mile by 50 mile area? And then, assuming you could get even a million people onto buses, where do you take them that can handle even a hundred thousand refugees on 24-48 hours notice?

For most of the US, and especially a city built like Houston, there are no good options.

Edit: I underestimated the size of the Houston Metro Area. It's closer to 100 miles by 100 miles.

Re:Houston’s Mayor Was Right to Not Evacuate by AnimalMuppet on Tuesday August 29, 2017 @05:02PM (#15127578)
You don't need a station, you just need a track. You can load at any point where there's a track with a flat area beside it.

The tricks are getting people to that loading point (without their cars, because you don't have enough parking for what you're trying to do), and getting the trains from that point to out of town without having to cross a flooded area.

Houston has plenty of tracks. I presume it has flat areas next to tracks. Getting out of town without having to cross flooding? I don't know. Enough tracks to hold the traffic that would be needed? Probably not.

Re:Houston’s Mayor Was Right to Not Evacuate by hn_throwaway_99 on Wednesday August 30, 2017 @03:38PM (#15135245)
Forgot tracks, what about actual trains. The passenger rail system in Texas is tiny.
Re:Houston’s Mayor Was Right to Not Evacuate by jen20 on Tuesday August 29, 2017 @01:55AM (#15122385)
No trains? https://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=am/am2...

That said, it's still not enough to even come close to evacuating a city like Houston.

Re:Houston’s Mayor Was Right to Not Evacuate by tzs on Tuesday August 29, 2017 @01:55AM (#15122384)
> There are no trains. The nearest Amtrak station is in San Antonio.

There's a station in Beaumont, which is closer than San Antonio.