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While I did not intend to get into a discussion about aircraft, currently, while jets might fly as fast as 600 mph, economically they fly at 400mph or less (depending on the jet stream and wind direction). Yes, the new Boeing Sonic Cruiser is expected to change the situation, but the Concord does not fly economically faster than the speed of sound. The reason why Amtrak does so well on the northeast corridor has much to do with the fact that the airports in that area are already at capacity, with no more room for more aircraft- in other words, they are already out of airspace..... The advantage trains have over airliners is the fact that most of the passenger cars have at least two doors, if not four, whereas an airliner usually uses one....just behind the cockpit...... In Europe the fast high speed trains average length of time for a stop is 3 minutes, it would take longer for an aircraft to taxi to a terminal after landing.....In aircraft, all the passengers must be seated and seat belted in before the aircraft taxis from the terminal, while trains start to move as soon as the door is closed, long before the passengers have stowed their luggage..... Getting back to aircraft, notice that the Boeing 777 and 767 are similar aircraft, wide bodies. However, the jet turbines on a 777 are much larger, thereby increasing the height of the landing gears, and causing terminals to build new gates, or improve older gates, to service this aircraft. This is one of the reasons why the Sonic Cruiser will incorporate the jet turbines into the wing instead of under the wing. While Boeing built the 777 with the Pacific in mind, the 767 was built for the Atlantic, to compete with Airbus.... Also, you are correct that hubs won't be as important to the airlines in the future as they have been in the past.The only airline currently turning a profit is Southwest Airlines, the one airline without a major hub or hubs.... But the key for Amtrak is not to concentrate on short lines in heavily condensed corridors, but to create fast long lines connecting the major regions of our country, in my opinion. There is no support nationwide for a government owned northeast corridor. If there is to be a government owned nationwide rail passenger system, it will have to be nationwide to gather any support in the Congress, especially in the Senate. The major population centers in the United States are California, Texas, Florida, the midwest and northeast. More than half of Amerca's population resides in these states. When you include the states in and between these major population centers, you can count on more than 75 percent of our nations population. While Amtrak has addressed high speed rail, it has not done so seriously. Since no high speed rail network can compete with the airliners for California's service to the east, why try? Build a high speed rail link between its major population centers instead. Considering the difficulty of building high speed rail in mountainous regions, it would probably cost as much to build one line through the Rockies as to build all of the network east of the Rockies.... As I stated before, east of the Rockies high speed rail CAN and WILL compete with the airlines. However, there is no need to copy the current route structure, as we should be building a new high speed rail network averaging at least 150 mph. While businesses today will only support using Amtrak for a few hours, the range and speed of today's passenger rail traffic is very short indeed, that is, averaging less than 50 mph. Triple that average, and the distances traveled would be much larger, large enough for business to support rail traffic instead of only 4 hours today to maybe 12 hours in the future. Also, the new bullet trains, on new track, will generate curiousity in the public, generating revenues far beyond what Amtrak sees today. Most of the people I talk to today, whether here in America or abroad in Europe, actually hate to mess with the traffic going to the airport, finding a parking space at the airport, going through security, the long lines everywhere, and then being crammed like a sardine into a seat too small for their butts. Everyone I meet on a passenger train likes too, the seats are larger, they can walk around, go to the diner, go to the lounge, etc., etc. The only thing they do not like about our passenger trains today IS THE VERY SLOW SPEED of their journey. While I am not familiar with the east coast, liviing in Texas, I can tell you that most businesses consider the day a total loss to productivity when their employee has to fly to another city, whether Chicago, New York City, or Washington DC. It takes hours in a major city to get to the airport, hours sitting at the airport, hours actually flown, and hours to gather their baggage and rent a car at their destination....
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