Passenger

I would like to bring to everyone's attention a striking problem that was mentioned recently in the Boston Globe...there is a bus fare war going on right now between Boston and NYC.  One way fares as low as $10.

Why do I bring this up?

 [1] How can railroads compete for intercity travelers with bus companies?  The tracks are not open access like the highways are. The tracks need to be open access for passenger travel! There will be rail companies willing to offer cheap intercity travel, once the tracks are no longer private property!  This is not communism, or socialism!  This is simply taking the idea of an interstate highway system and transfering it to railway travel.  IRSA {Interstate Railway System Administration} would solve this problem by allowing intercity access to more passenger rail providers.  We should already have single unit rail vehicles shutteling between BOS and NYC and other US cities!!  America cannot depend forever on one passenger rail carrier (Amtrak).  Either the existing commuterrail organizations need to be able to get into the intercity rail connections business, or there needs to be other passenger rail transport providers besides AMTRAK.

[2]  If the Bus companies can afford to sell seats this cheap, then the bus companies are obviously not paying their fair share of highway upkeep!  With IRSA, the taxpayers will be supporting less interstate highway projects, and more interstate railway projects.  This has to happen!  We know the days of cheap, plentyful oil are gone!

Are you just talking about the NEC or all the rail lines in the US?  How would you accomplish this?  Amtrak and MN own the NEC.  What if their lines are not for sale.  Would you just take it from them? 

Would "expensive oil" tilt the market toward rail or bus?  If bus, then why would we need rail at all?

I would rather push a train than ride a bus!

Maglev:

I would rather push a train than ride a bus!

And how would you get to such places as Bend, OR; College Station, TX; Madison, WI; Ithaca, NY; or Knoxville,TN?

Maglev:

I would rather push a train than ride a bus!

If you want to pry money out of other people's wallets to build HSR, you'll have to have a more compelling arguement than, "I don't like buses."

creepycrank:

In states that have a dedicated tax the amount collected is more than adequate to maintain the road.

Unfortunaly you have missed some of the posts this year about road wear.  RWM had a post that explained (haven't found it yet) how road wear is about to the 4th power of the weight on any wheel. Now a bus doesn't weigh as much as a 80,000# 18 wheeler (4250# tandems, 6000# steers, nominal)but with only six or eight total tires the weight gets fairly close to those of the afore mentioned 18 wheelers. This is another example of the people who drive cars (1000# nominal, 2000# Suvs per wheel) subsidizing the trucks and buses. This is just one of the reasons I do not support BRT as an ongoing entreprize. Around here on the interstates trucks a banned except on the two outside lanes. Those are the ones that are coming apart, cracked, potholed, etc.

What is BRT?

jclass:

What is BRT?

Bus rapid transit.  It can be anything from a dedicated busway using articulated buses to just a regular old transit bus that can activate a few city traffic lights in it's favor.

I would rather push a train than ride a bus! 

Paul--

I have flown to Knoxville and Ithaca, on the type of regional flight about which there are now SERIOUS safety questions.  I flew because I could afford it.  I drove to Bend in a rental car from Portland, because I was with my family and wanted to enjoy survive the trip.

High Speed Rail is necessary for safety and dignity of travel. 

 The co-pilot of that plane that crashed near Buffalo made less per year than I did working as a hotel bellman, and was seriously fatigued by communting from Seattle to Newark.  As for buses, our vacation in Bend would have been miserable if my blind, one-legged father had to ride a bus for six hours to get there.  Mom has mobility problems too, and my wife used to make me wipe Amtrak bathrooms before she would use them--she would make herself sick before she used a bus toilet.  And I had just finished the Portland Marathon, so occasionally stretching my legs was necessary.

 There's a 1000-lbs car?  Where?

Wait.  What?

Maglev:

High Speed Rail is necessary for safety and dignity of travel. 

You're going to need a lot more than that if you want to make a serious pitch for High Speed Rail.  If dignity of travel (whatever that means) is such an issue, why do people, myself included, continue to travel on commercial airlines?  I do not find the accomodations on commercial airliners, both regional and long-haul, to be an affront to my dignity. 

Maglev:

High Speed Rail is necessary for safety and dignity of travel. 

aegrotatio:

There's a 1000-lbs car?  Where?

Oltmand:

I attended the meeting in Charlotte of the national high-speed rail vision road show – a series of workshops in seven U.S. cities put on by the Federal Railroad Administration on the 20th.

In attendance were representatives of FRA, Amtrak, National DOT, Virginia DOT, North Carolina DOT, North Caroilina Rail Road (Did you know that NC has owned a railroad for 160 years?) South Carolina DOT, and Georgia DOT.

The SC rep sounded enthusiastic, but all of the other state entities were not only enthusiastic, but were eagerly describing the many things they are already doing to further the SouthEast high speed corridor.  VA and NC have done the environmental studies and are working on the engineering of the route from DC through Richmond, to Raleigh.  NCRR is in the process of doing 150 million dollars worth of upgrades between Raleigh and Charlotte, GA has done the feasability studies from Charlotte, through Atlanta, to Macon and is ready to start the environmental studies in GA.  NC has preliminary plans for a network of local rail from the shore to the mountains to bring people from all over the state to the corridor.

It was a very positive sounding meeting.