Comment on "We Took a 100+ Hour Greyhound From Boston to Seattle"

• Dogyote@slrpnk.net ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Even if the USA was to start a massive federal level HSR program tomorrow, it would likely be several disconnected networks which may never connect across the Rockies.

  So what? You gotta start somewhere

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  • HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’m not saying you shouldn’t start, just that I wouldn’t expect a Spokane to Missoula or a Boise to Salt Lake City segment any time soon.

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• chaorace@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I’m curious, why wouldn’t Japan or France qualify as countries which have “built a high speed rail network of length and ubiquity that would meet their needs”? Yes, China has by far the most HSR infrastructure and world-leading HSR expertise, but surely at least a few other countries can satisfy such a mediocre standard as “meeting their needs”?

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  • HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Both Japan and France have great high speed rail systems, but they are on par with a built it California High Speed Rail, maybe with connections to Nevada and Arizona. They may be national networks, but the size in the USA would put them more at the size of an individual state.

    The scale of HSR required to take a trip like shown in the video would need to be on a system the scale of China’s system, not Japan or France.

    And note that I didn’t say that high speed rail in the USA is bad, just that it probably wouldn’t be one full network; there would likely be gaps in coverage.

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  • Chetzemoka@startrek.website ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    They mean meeting the needs of the US. France is the size of Texas. What works in France doesn’t translate to the US because of our sheer geographic size. China is the only country with high speed rail that compares in geographic size to the US.

    But we absolutely could and should have high speed rail corridors that cover the east coast and west coast separately.

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    • HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Exactly. The USA should have high speed rail, but it isn’t going to be one continuous network. We also shouldn’t set the expectation for transcontinental high speed rail trips as the marker for success because that is going to lead to poor investment in HSR.

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      • Krauerking@lemy.lol ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Yeah honestly northeast corridor is the way to do it and just explode the investment in the DC to New York space

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• anonymoose@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  What are “city pairs”?

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  • HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Two cities of a certain size that are within the distances that high speed rail makes sense over driving or flying. It makes sense to connect Los Angeles to San Francisco, for instance. However, there isn’t that much density in a large part of the country to justify the cost of high speed rail currently.

    Hell, a big complaint with California’s HSR implementation is that it isn’t initially connecting either of the two main cities; those segments are still under design.

    So a high speed rail trip cross country isn’t going to be viable any time soon, and likely shouldn’t be planned for beyond mandating a federal electrification and signaling standard.

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    • anonymoose@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Thanks for the explanation!

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