Comments on: Plans For U.S. Levitating Train Get Boost

The Proposed MagLev Train Would Get Passengers From L.A. To Vegas In Under 2 Hours

[rational_1]

So if you don''''t agree, then you must feel that we need to be driving a SUV everyone and pumping hundreds of dollars of gas away just to live up to your nightmare of commercial greed. Wonderful. The worst thing about people like you is that you are so fixated in your own opinion of superiority that you offer nothing to humanity that is even worth looking at. You are hopeless.
Posted by rudy654 at 10:43 PM : Jun 07, 2008

Uhhhm, I said I didn''t disagree, which meant I agreed with him. The worst thing about people like you (to borrow your phrase) is that you can''t read.

The gub''ment can''t afford the infrastructure we have now, where are these funds going to come from??? Trains are NOT an eco-friendly solution, and if it were possiblr for them to be self-supporting they would not require government subsidies.

[rudy654-2009]

You need public subsidy for train services. Americans have long had a difficulty in accepting that, thinking you need to see profit on everything, or toss it. Trains are good for the environment, good for low income people and good for society in general. But to
Posted by cdfoxtrot at 04:45 PM : Jun 07, 2008

I don''''t disagree with you on anything you wrote, but it does concern me that they closed down a line between LA to Vegas due to lack of ridership and now propose to build a new expensive one. I didn''''t read in the article any estimates of ridership and why their new route will necessarily get more riders than the last one they abandoned. Seems to me the expected usage should be estimated before embarking on something of this scale.


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Posted by rational_1 at 05:24 PM

So if you don''t agree, then you must feel that we need to be driving a SUV everyone and pumping hundreds of dollars of gas away just to live up to your nightmare of commercial greed. Wonderful. The worst thing about people like you is that you are so fixated in your own opinion of superiority that you offer nothing to humanity that is even worth looking at. You are hopeless.

[cockapoo8]

Electromagnetic radiation, I''m told, makes chicks grow teeth in their vaggginas. Whats it gonna do to me? Turn my nose into a siphon?

[cockapoo8]

Also, I''m not convinced exposure to high levels of electromagnetic radiation via high powered magnets is free of ill side effects, both for the passengers, and the community. Has the government started testing this? Or are they too busy with baseball?

[rational_1]

You need public subsidy for train services. Americans have long had a difficulty in accepting that, thinking you need to see profit on everything, or toss it. Trains are good for the environment, good for low income people and good for society in general. But to
Posted by cdfoxtrot at 04:45 PM : Jun 07, 2008

I don''t disagree with you on anything you wrote, but it does concern me that they closed down a line between LA to Vegas due to lack of ridership and now propose to build a new expensive one. I didn''t read in the article any estimates of ridership and why their new route will necessarily get more riders than the last one they abandoned. Seems to me the expected usage should be estimated before embarking on something of this scale.

[caldwellptr]

The New York City subway carries 4 million passengers a day, the same number of people who live in Houston, Atlanta or Philadelphia year round.

Las Vegas - Los Angeles: If you build it they will come

[caldwellptr]

The New York City subway carries over 1 billion passengers every year.

Las Vegas - Los Angles: If you build it they will come.

[ioweign]

Drive an American Motors car. Fly TWA. Shop at Montgomery Ward.

Posted by downsteamjim at 04:22 PM : Jun 07, 2008


See, Corporate Welfare doesn''t work...

[cdfoxtrot]

"There is no train on the route - Amtrak''''s Desert Wind between Los Angeles and Las Vegas was canceled in 1997 because of low ridership."

Does this little piece of information imbue you with any confidence that a whole new train system is a good idea? Wouldn''''t it make sense to re-start that LA-Vegas route for a while if only to gauge rider interest?

Posted by rational_1

You need public subsidy for train services. Americans have long had a difficulty in accepting that, thinking you need to see profit on everything, or toss it. Trains are good for the environment, good for low income people and good for society in general. But to work, given the enormous up front investment, and requirements in terms of frequency and where they go, they need public subsidy. No one has a problem with highways getting built and maintained with public money, but trains, which would cost a tiny fraction of highway spending, are taboo in the US, which, ironically, is perfect for high speed trains, given the large size of the country and population concentrations in major urban centers.