Hammerheadjim said:
I like the concept of high speed rail. I don't like the concept of stealing private land to do it.
Why can the rail run down I 45 for the most part?
Yep. I Have been saying for the past five years that they should either run the high speed down the side ROW of I45 with an elevated rail-line over cross roads and other physical features where necessary. Doing so, little land will have to be confiscated from private landowners.
.The asinine part of this, is that if you look at the time savings it won't be what they think it will be.
Say you live in Garland and going to downtown Houston. Garland to the depot in the Cedars area of Dallas is 19 miles. In average day traffic in Dallas it would probably take you at least 20 to 30 minutes to get to the depot.
Of course you will need to get there a little early to either park or get dropped off, get in line, and go through security so lets add 20 minutes. Maybe you don't get on the first train and have to wait for the next one 20 minutes later? But we will assume you do.
So you get on the train and the run to Houston is 90 minutes to the Northwest Mall area of Houston, 8 miles from downtown Houston.
So you get to Houston, get off the train, go to get either an Uber or someone picks you up and drives you in traffic to downtown Houston. That's probably another 15 minutes or more. If you're going to rent a car, that's probably another 15 minutes to get it and get out of the depot.
So that's about 170 to 200 minutes or so minimum....about 3 hours or more.
The drive from Garland to downtown Houston is 253 miles/3 hrs, 50 minutes. so you are probably going to save less than an hour and not have your own auto and will have to go back on their schedule and not your's.
The only benefit I see of the high speed rail is that you don't put wear and tear on your own car, you don't drive in the traffic, you can sleep on the rail, and also do some computer work.
I am not sure that it is worth the confiscation of private property and the BILLIONS of dollars that 99% of the taxpapers who will pay for it and probably never use the train.
