>private company tries to build high speed rail between two large cities with bad traffic problems and urban sprawl
>holds dozens of community meetings to understand locals’ concerns
>protesters show up by the hundreds to protest it for literally no reason
>REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR
Only in America.
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OH SAY CAN YOU SEE
I hope he remembered.
This is what freedom looks like
I wonder, do the Americans have any bullet trains? The guy in the vid called it "obsolete technology", and this implies they have something better than a bullet train. Are they going to do a hyperloop?
Jesus Christ
Should have screencapped more of that guy’s posts he was so retarded. I’ve never seen anyone so impervious to logic
They don't have any bullet trains. AFAIK the only solid proposals are San Diego - San Francisco and Dallas - Houson, but good luck getting them started.
Well... that train line does look like it would fit in Japan so...
We have some short ones around DC that aren’t that fast. A private company has built some in Florida and is building more. California is building one from San Fran to LA. This company is tryin to build one in Texas (company is all Texans but investors and technology are Japanese).
Our major cities do a lot of feasibility studies showing bullet trains would be profitable but the state governments tend to oppose them.
The Obama administration had a well-thought-out plan desu. But republicans shot it down twice. Republicans and libertarians are mostly supported by oil companies so they hate transit.
Texan here. it's a pretty bad idea imo. traffic on I-45 is not that bad. I once made it from the north Houston suburbs to downtown Dallas in 2.5 hours in a 1994 Ford Ranger. and you need a car to get around DFW and Houston. so unless you're Mr. Moneybags and want to rent a car there, or are crashing with a friend, or are taking a taxi directly to a hotel for a conference or something...why would you not drive? and Houston doesn't really hold conferences outside of the energy sector. property is cheap but the weather is too humid.
not to mention it's probably going to be an absolute shitshow trying to acquire all of the land there. rural Texans, especially in East Texas, aren't a big fan of eminent domain.
I'll be damned. This looked good - not perfect, but a pretty solid start - and it would've made some jobs for the locals in the meanwhile - what's to hate?
Does the oil lobby really have many politicians by the balls?
US trains are incredibly expensive relative to other countries and also useless since the destination cities aren't walkable to begin with. One line in coastal CA and another from DC to Boston is all that would be worth building
there's no point. for long distance, airlines are faster and not much more expensive. and take up much less ground space to eminent domain.
Yup. The Koch Brothers are some of the biggest Republican donors, and they fund think tanks like the Cato Institute so even the more intellectual right-wingers are misinformed on transit.
politicians are corrupt pieces of shit and the average american is a fucking mong retard
this is why no ambitious, envelope-pushing projects ever happen here anymore
American cities become more walkable every day do you even read the news
I guess airplanes are faster, and they can get just fly over hardy terrains, in which building a rail line would be hard and possibly unsafe, but they still use a large amount of fuel. Not saying people should abandon them, because that would be stupid, but I don't see the problem in having rail lines.
Some of the car owners may opt out to use trains over their own cars. But then again, I'm not American. I have no idea if the average American is willing to ditch his own car for his daily trips to work in favour of a high-speed train, though (assuming he has to travel from a small town to a city). I have no idea of how the average American thinks, so you could be right, and this could be useless, because most Americans would still prefer to use their own cars.
High-speed rail ain’t for commutes, it’s usually for trips.
It’s faster than a plane if you’re going a few hundred km. If you’re going across the entire country then yeah take a plane. But in general a bullet train is faster and cheaper than a highway or a plane.
And according to surveys about 2/3 of Americans wish there was a high speed rail network here.
We don't really have speedy trains here, so I apologise for being a bit stupid about it. I was assuming trips of 80+ km one-way, and most people likely don't travel that much.
That's honestly a bit surprising. My impression (from Jow Forums) was that people valued the whole self-reliancy thing and freedom thing a lot.
I really have to do some reading up on the US, I'm incredibly ill-suited for conversations on it.
Who is building it? Koreans? Japs? Chinamen?
China proved that wrong
Eminent domain fixes many of the land issues you properly identify.
Trains have nothing to do with muh freedum muh see-elf reliantsce.
Exactly. Isn't it "un-american" to use a train, to wait for it to arrive for half an hour, instead of getting in your own car and setting off right at the moment you think of it? That's why I was a bit surprised by the popularity of the line among people.
I'm too influenced by stereotypes, aren't I?
I don't think you realize how large America is.
eminent domain is evil.
the problem is that you don't have a car in whatever city you show up in. you get off the train...and then what? walk for 5-10 hours to your destination?
how funny would it be if the US were to actually start running HSR lines and they have to outfit their cars to fit all those 600lbs behemoths.
>China had basically no highways 25 years ago
>now they build ours for us
Makes you think
That is the big problem. Long-distance trains are neat and everything but not necessary when air and auto transport are such close substitutes. Frequent local service is life-changing but no one is willing to make the necessary legal changes we'd need to get that an affordable cost
Damn, I’m flattered you were so butthurt you made that for me
Yes, republicans think transit is unamerican. And I do see where they’re coming from. I used to feel similarly.
But as I learned more about transit and urban development it became very apparent that car-dependency was ruining our cities and way of life.
In America we don’t have a choice, and I think that’s unamerican.
Our federal government subsidizes cars and oil over every other travel option and doesn’t give anything else a chance to compete. Republicans like this status quo because theyre funded by oil companies.
>obsolete technology
Fuck Texas.
As someone who works in real estate I can confirm that you “problem” you just stated is entirely made up.
American cities have been getting denser and more transit-friendly for 10 years now and it only keeps gaining momentum. So trains would not only be feasible now, but increasingly so in the future. And when you build train stations denser development forms around it; it’s great for the economy.
The big problem is the lack of trains because most people would prefer taking one over having to drive themselves or call an expensive Uber. It’s not a substitute.
Local trains yes, but we aren't even willing to be serious about maintaining those, forget building them. Long-distance trains, who cares, more pleasant than flying but usually costs more; shouldn't be a priority