President Biden Announces Billions to Deliver World-Class High-Speed Rail

If California rail cost currently at $200 million per mile, is any indication, the $8.2 billion in new funding should be able to help build 42 miles of high speed rail. Something like NYC to Westchester Country New York<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hoover.org&#x2F;research&#x2F;little-engine-couldnt-californias-high-speed-rail-costs-rise-200-million-mile" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hoover.org&#x2F;research&#x2F;little-engine-couldnt-califo...</a>

I wish the map were higher definition. I see a line from San Antonio (or Austin?) to El Paso, my most traveled route, but nothing in the text description about it. There are also some other lines linking the Texas Triangle which would be great!<p>Regardless, I hope this plan sees fruition in a reasonable timeframe. Further investments in transit within cities themselves would be welcome too, given a lot of folks may be renting a car at 1 end of a high speed rail trip, but this seems great.

The US would really benefit from a high speed rail network even if it connects just a few hubs imo.

Money laundering&#x2F;pork claims coming from the usual suspects not withstanding, I’m hopeful that the technology that gets developed under this helps boost California’s miserable failure in connecting Fresno to Visalia or wherever it’s located currently.

No amount of investment matters if trains <i>can’t</i> run on time. My experience with Amtrak has been that unless you are starting at a hub (e.g. Chicago&#x2F;Seattle) there is almost a zero percent chance your train will be on time. Even worse, the discrepancy isn’t a matter of minutes but hours.<p>My latest - and last - attempt at taking the train from St. Paul to Columbus, WI (nearest stop to Madison) was scheduled to leave at 8 am. At 8:30, we were told by Amtrak staff they “expect the train within the half-hour”. They kept saying this until 1pm. I could have driven the route in less time than I spent waiting fruitlessly for the train to arrive.

With the amount of semi-trucks I see on the highway crisscrossing this country constantly it seems it might be better to just focus on getting our existing freight traffic off the roads before we worry about passenger traffic.<p>*I&#x27;m not talking about last mile deliveries, or suggesting the entire trucking industry can be magically turned into railroad freight.

I&#x27;ve tried to figure out the logisitics of having Caltrain and Cal HSR sharing two tracks in the SF Bay Peninsula corridor and I simply can&#x27;t figure it out. There&#x27;s no way you can get the Cal HSR at speed through the corridor with bidirectional Caltrain non-high-speed traffic, and there&#x27;s no room to build more track. So the HSR would have to slow down to Caltrain speeds or they would have to modify the Caltrain schedule (this is all speculation; I haven&#x27;t seen any plans to address this, other than the ongoing grade separation and electrification).<p>Combined with the route (which takes a big detour, increasing the ride between the termini), it seems like we&#x27;re going to pay a lot of money to have something that can sort of get you between northern LA and southern San Jose in a not-very-short amount of time. Hard to see the attraction.

Pleasantly surprised by this. Finally some real investment in high speed rail. The LA to Las Vegas high speed line seems like an obvious mistake, though. Definitely excited about the northeast corridor improvements. They say the Downeaster line is going to be improved, but no details. I wish the Downeaster went further up the coast of Maine.<p>edit: Looks like the Downeaster could get extended to Rockland. Neat! <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wabi.tv&#x2F;2023&#x2F;12&#x2F;08&#x2F;downeaster-could-extend-further-into-maine-thanks-white-house-announcement&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wabi.tv&#x2F;2023&#x2F;12&#x2F;08&#x2F;downeaster-could-extend-furth...</a>

I took an Amtrak from Portland to Seattle recently and was amazed at how slow it was, it had to slow down and speed up a lot. I think it had to do with turns too.

Ah yes, billions more in spending that we <i>can&#x27;t</i> afford. Keep emitting debt, US government, and keep generating more inflation while you&#x27;re at it. Insanity.

Forget about my support for Palestinian genocide! Look, trains!

What about Chicago to Saint Louis?

220mph == high speed in this case

So, wouldn&#x27;t dedicated high speed lanes by autonomous vehicles be more flexible?<p>They are talking 220mph here. I would think autonomous electric vehicles could do this too.<p>Although, possibly rail might be safer because you can build fences to keep animals out.<p>Maybe a mixture of both in the future?