68 trips a day. That's a lot of half empty trains running back and forth each day.
BCS will not get a stop on the Dallas to Houston High Speed Rail Line
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Last: 9 yr ago by techno-ag
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68 trips a day. That's a lot of half empty trains running back and forth each day.
Okay. But, I gotta admit 2 - 4 stops daily here seems reasonable.
I would imagine if they did build the train here, allot of people probably from Houston would move to College Station (given the speed and times), and commute into downtown Houston. Also, business here would benefit given that people in Houston could commute as well into town.
Another side note for Gameday traffic (290 to 6 one lane sucks), as well as Hurricane related traffic this would make sense as well.
Just thoughts, and thinking outside the box.
Another side note for Gameday traffic (290 to 6 one lane sucks), as well as Hurricane related traffic this would make sense as well.
Just thoughts, and thinking outside the box.
Houston to Dallas in 90 minutes at 205 MPH. Stop in BCS increases time. Stop in BCS leads to stop in Waco. Before long, a 90 minute trip turns into 3 hours. HSR between Houston and Dallas should be downtown to downtown, only. Hopefully train service will return at some point to BCS. But not this.
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68 trips a day. That's a lot of half empty trains running back and forth each day.
Okay. But, I gotta admit 2 - 4 stops daily here seems reasonable.
How do you figure this is even remotely reasonable when you factor in routing the rail lines, building a train station and adding additional time to the route even when there are no stops? All of this for a whole 2-4 stops per day?
It seems to work in Europe. Some trains are "express" between major cities, others stop at the smaller ones.
It would be nice to have a BCS stop but I'm not holding my breath. They've been talking up HSR for years now.
It would be nice to have a BCS stop but I'm not holding my breath. They've been talking up HSR for years now.
quote:quote:quote:
68 trips a day. That's a lot of half empty trains running back and forth each day.
Okay. But, I gotta admit 2 - 4 stops daily here seems reasonable.
How do you figure this is even remotely reasonable when you factor in routing the rail lines, building a train station and adding additional time to the route even when there are no stops? All of this for a whole 2-4 stops per day?
Sure there are upfront costs, but the real cost is in the time and energy lost per trip. A stop in BCS for every train would probably add 6-10 minutes to the trip, plus energy and maintenance costs to decelerate and re-accelerate. They could schedule BCS stops intelligently around commute times and airline times, when it would be most used, and the rest of the trips could fly through since they wouldn't really be utilized anyways.
quote:http://reason.org/files/high_speed_rail_lessons.pdf
It seems to work in Europe. Some trains are "express" between major cities, others stop at the smaller ones.
It would be nice to have a BCS stop but I'm not holding my breath. They've been talking up HSR for years now.
I love passenger rail and use it whenever I can in Europe or on the coasts, but "seems to work" and my personal enjoyment are not reasons to do it. I'm not sure how Europe or Japan do the balance between freight and passenger rail, but it's historically been a problem for passenger rail in the US. Displacement of freight is probably worse environmentally than whatever benefits there are from a small number of passengers on HSR.
The other thing is, that in Europe or the East Coast, when you get off the train you are in a dense urban area where you can usually walk to your final destination. Don't see that for B/CS, IMO.
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The other thing is, that in Europe or the East Coast, when you get off the train you are in a dense urban area where you can usually walk to your final destination. Don't see that for B/CS, IMO.
Agreed. Trains make sense in high population dense areas. I'm not holding my breath on a Texas hsr, the only reason this one might have a shot this time is the foreign investment. Hopefully they won't raid transportation funds for it.
All that said, it'd be nice to have some stops in BCS if they do in fact build it. I took Amtrak to New Orleans back in the day, & it was a nice trip.
Why not just have a smaller rail that connects at some point to the HSR and to BCS. It could run morning and night and would get to the station in time for the passengers to get to Dallas/Houston in the morning or at night.
In theory, I love the idea of a privately funded high speed rail connecting Houston-Dallas; that down the line might connect to BCS as well. For maybe businessmen only going in to downtown for a few hours or perhaps even someone traveling to visit family in the other town it would be a nice alternative to driving yourself or a Southwest Airline flight between Hobby Airport and Love Field. The biggest problem I see with it, however, is that for most other people it's use would be considerably limited by the nature of the cities themselves. As others mentioned, once you get to Houston or Dallas (and especially BCS) you'll need to have someone to drive you around once you get there.
If, for example, we were making a weekend trip to the Metroplex for the annual game against the Piggies, after the family gets off the train we'd need to head straight to the rental car booth (just like if we'd flown in to town). Unless the train tickets were only $5-10 per person, I don't see how railing in to town and then renting a car for the weekend or paying cab fares would be more cost effective than just driving in to town yourself.
If, for example, we were making a weekend trip to the Metroplex for the annual game against the Piggies, after the family gets off the train we'd need to head straight to the rental car booth (just like if we'd flown in to town). Unless the train tickets were only $5-10 per person, I don't see how railing in to town and then renting a car for the weekend or paying cab fares would be more cost effective than just driving in to town yourself.
I looked into this several years ago and hit upon the roll on/off cars the channel tunnel uses.
If I remember correctly, it took under 30min for them to fully load the trains.
If I remember correctly, it took under 30min for them to fully load the trains.
Uber changes the expensive taxi dynamic, too.