Comments on: Why Trains Just Don’t Work in America

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:46:34 +0000

Look at New Jersey State Transit system. It is probably the best in America after NYC. 75% of the states population live with 5 miles of a rail station(11 commuter lines, all linked together). Well over 90% live with 3 miles of a bus line. The system is actually going to add 2 more rail lines in the next 5-7 years. All trains run every hour or less; 7-365 and run from 4am to 1am. Almost full day service. Trains are actually at of above capacity on a regular basis. The state is pushing smart development on towns based around public transportation. By the way travel time are very favorable to a car and train and buses have cares be on cost ever time. Ex. Furthest point on an NJTransit train is about 90/120 minute from NYC and cost $21.50 round trip. Car can take easily just as long and every toll into NYC is about $8 plus parking will be over $40 real fast.

By: Ingemar Smith

Ingemar Smith — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:11:19 +0000

This comparison is worthless. It’s like comparing Betamax and Blu-Ray DVDs by the cost to produce Betamax tapes which basically aren’t in production.

Comparisons can’t be made tween systems currently dominant and systems that never saw dominance. Scale makes a huge difference as to what the price of a product or service is.

So today comparing trains, which aren’t used much with planes which are used all the time, isn’t useful for much anything besides seeing who is on what service.

To understand what I’m saying, try to estimate or imagine what it might cost to fly if the ridership were reversed. Flying wouldn’t be very economical. It prolly would be impossible for everyone but the super rich. Trains would definitely be usable if more people used them which goes back to the plan by the airlines and auto industry to derail the train industry before it could really get going. This was done deliberately. So putting it on the size of the country is ridiculous. That’s not the problem. Most people aren’t flying cross country anyhow.

Scale matters.

By: anon.

anon. — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:52:26 +0000

“Did someone say that 20 hours from Denver to NYC is “comparable to a plane”? Unless you think NYC is the airport code for Sydney, Australia, let me disabuse you of the idea that 20 hours is similar in time to 4.5 hours.”

If you can get from NYC to Denver in less than 10 hours, you own a private jet. For normal people, the massive overhead at either end is significant.

By: anon.

anon. — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:49:09 +0000

Now, to be much more specific, obviously trains don’t compete with air for the coveted LA to NY market.

But that’s not what train advocates are talking about, so it’s a complete nonsequiter.

There are an enormous number of close-by cities which should have good passenger rail, where it would be faster than air travel or car travel — but in most cases they don’t. The Portland,ME-Boston-NY-Philadelphia-Baltimore-DC-Richmond,VA-Raleigh/Durham,NC-Winston/Salem,NC-Charlotte,NC/Atlanta,GA markets. The San Diego-LA-San Francisco-Sacramento markets. The Minneapolis-Madison,WI-Milwaukee,WI-Chicago,IL-Gary,IN-Fort Wayne,IN-Toledo,OH-Cleveland,OH-Youngstown,OH-Pittsburgh,PA-Harrisburg,PA-Philadelphia markets. The NYC-Albany,NY-Syracuse,NY-Rochester,NY-Buffalo,NY-Niagara Falls-Toronto market. The Toronto-Windsor-Detroit-Chicago market. The Chicago-Joliet-St.Louis-Kansas City markets. And those are just off the top of my head.

When you stick the natural pairs which would be served by high-speed rail in Europe together, you find that you have a continuous network from the Midwest to the East Coast. People may still take planes from Atlanta to Minneapolis, but if they’re only travelling half that distance, they certainly wouldn’t — if we had the will to build a European-quality rail system.

By: anon.

anon. — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:41:02 +0000

Well, if America continues to government-fund airports and airlines more heavily than we fund trains (no kidding, government subsidies to air travel exceed Amtrak’s funding); if we continue to force passenger trains to exist as second-class citizens on the freight rail network, so that they can’t run on time; well, then they won’t work.

If on the other hand we acted like a normal, respectable country, passenger trains would work just fine.

Dumb dumb article: it’s wildly illogical. From the fact that trains are not currently working, he concludes that “Passenger rail is almost certainly never going to work again”. Complete non-sequiter. The lending market is not currently working. That means it will NEVER WORK AGAIN, according to this author. A bridge collapsed in Minnesota. Therefore there will NEVER BE A BRIDGE THERE AGAIN. What an idiot!

By: fornetti

fornetti — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:28:46 +0000

I do not believe this

By: Pajamas Media » Live From the DNC: Eyewitness to Mayhem (Day 2)

Pajamas Media » Live From the DNC: Eyewitness to Mayhem (Day 2) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:58:30 +0000

[...] finding parking downtown, even on a normal day it is probably about as fast. You might think, after my piece on trains, that I’m against public transportation. I’m not. I’m just against public [...]

By: HC

HC — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:48:10 +0000

Hm…not quite right.

The german “Transrapid” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transrapid) is able to achieve a travelling-speed of 310mph…

Denver->New York by Mag-Lev would actually take LESS time then flying (roughly 6 hours compared to 18h). AND it would be much more energy-efficient and ecologic (no kerosine needed!)

By: ZEUGS: Holocaust-Leugner, Bush-Mord als Computerspiel und deutsche Blogger « USA Erklärt

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:01:39 +0000

[...] “Pajamas Media” schwärmt Charlie Martin aus Colorado vom deutschen Eisenbahnnetz und rechnet dann vor, warum das für die USA keine Alternative ist: I can manage a one-day business trip by plane, but [...]

By: James Anderson Merritt

James Anderson Merritt — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:24:44 +0000

Back in 1964, three dimes would buy a gallon of gas. The 1964 Roosevelt dime was 90% silver, 10% copper. As of today’s date, the meltdown value of the silver in that dime is worth about $1.32-1.33. (See http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1946-1964-Silver-Roosevelt-Dime-Value.html) If you had three of those dimes today, you could get about $4.00 for the metal value alone, almost exactly the current average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline. Plus or minus brief blips of speculation in oil and/or silver, this basic relationship has remained true for the past 44 years. It is important to understand that oil prices in dollars haven’t really gone up as a function of oil becoming more costly to produce or obtain — through the normal supply-and-demand market mechanisms, in other words — but rather because the dollar’s value has been steadily diluted in the past several decades by relentless inflation — like the slow leak of a tire. Middle Eastern bad guys, oil speculators, and the greedy oil companies aren’t to blame for this. Only the government is responsible for controlling the value of the dollar and how many are in circulation. Either by making honest mistakes or through deliberate manipulation of the money supply, our own government — through successive administrations of GOP and Democrat control alike — has created the current situation, but is more than happy to deflect the blame to others. If we don’t recognize the true cause and perpetrators, we will never be able to stop the slow leak and repair the damage caused so far.