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Then another 15 to get a rental.

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If your business in dallas requires a rental car, then of course you should drive.

Flying from iah to Dfw usually takes right at 4 hours from house to courthouse downtown dallas.

My rule of thumb is 6 hours or less, and I drive. I use that rule due to mostly driving from Katy to NoLa for business.

4.5 hours is probably the true "break-even" time, but I really prefer being in control of my own schedule and not the airport's or airline's...or in this situation, HSR.

Not arguing the costs, but for the airport, isn't that discounting the fact the land is already purchased AND there aren't utilities underground that need to be moved? That would help in the overall cost, correct?

It seems a little hard to truly compare apples to apples (urban highway vs. airport), especially if you are looking IAH.

I guess a better comparison would be JFK (flew out the first time ever this Sept). I know the construction there has that place all sorts of FUBAR. Think 290 issues, but in a crowded terminal. Getting on a bus to get to NYC was a fun task.

~egon

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An hour for security and idle time waiting to board. 30 minutes to board. An hour flight. 30 minutes to land taxi gate unload. 15 minutes to get luggage.

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TSA Pre-check and don't check a bag. Dropped off at Love field by Uber this past Sunday at 3pm. Got Whataburger and boarded my 3:40 flight in plenty of time.

Let me let you guys in on a little secret..........

This thing will NEVER see the light of day.
Even it it had the full weight and support of the state behind it , which it does NOT, it has become virtually impossible to build such projects in this nation. Look at a damn underground pipeline or any major infrastructure project in this over regulated nightmare called the United States. All it takes is some injun claiming there is a holy rock where some 18th century medicine man crapped and ..........dead stop.... all it takes is some geek with a biology degree for Sa Houston St to claim that there is some sub species of a bug along the route and ......dead stop..... all it takes is some house frau claiming that the choo choo will destroy her ability to make a cake rise and.....dead stop....

This is nothing but a money grab by a bunch of guys all gussied up and organized raising money from duped investors and the gullible public paying themselves a HUGE stipend to travel the state with nice pictures and graphics stirring up the folks and having fun..... Bob Eckels and co are laughing all the way to the bank on this latest pie in the sky fiasco...

I agree that it is a total boondoggle, but wouldn't the feds not have jurisdiction, since it would be 100% intrastate?

Correct me if I'm wrong.

WaltonLoads08 said:

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I agree that it is a total boondoggle, but wouldn't the feds not have jurisdiction, since it would be 100% intrastate?

Correct me if I'm wrong.

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A shopping mall in Travis county was held up for almost 10 years due to the possibility that some damn bug might reside under the property. Federal foolishness is still in force even if it is your own backyard ONLY.
See the stories about guys who simply have dug ponds in their yard and have had the feds swarm upon them due to some idiot enviro-crap or made up navigable water stuff.
There are so many possibilities to interfere with this thing that it would be virtually impossible to build. The federal tyranny is massive.

I believe it.

Millions have been spent to keep the damn Prairie Chickens alive for some reason, so it wouldn't surprise me if they found some grasshopper that may lose a wing if it's near a fast train.

How dare people who's ancestors were promised sovereignty over "their nation" as long as the rivers run protest when once again the US unilaterally amends the treaty when it might benefit them. Different deal.

jja79 said:

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How dare people who's ancestors were promised sovereignty over "their nation" as long as the rivers run protest when once again the US unilaterally amends the treaty when it might benefit them. Different deal.

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derail alert.
They lost ..we won...
Over and out.

My point is the promise was made after we won. Guess we don't promise very well.

I do agree with you this will never come to pass, though I was skeptical about the 249 Tollroad as well and apparently that's about to get started.

jja79 said:

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My point is the promise was made after we won. Guess we don't promise very well.

I do agree with you this will never come to pass, though I was skeptical about the 249 Tollroad as well and apparently that's about to get started.

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The 249 toll road is a state project, largely supported by those affected and minuscule when compared to this choo choo. AND it has taken many many many years to finally just get started.
This choo choo is a so-called private venture that has investors that do not have a multi-decade time frame to even BEGIN construction.
All it will take , even IF they get into the real land grab stage, is a couple of dozen aggrieved types to throw so many roadblocks in it's path that everyone involved will give up.

coastsrs said:

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Distance matters. And a Hou-Dallas flight, door to door driving is probably best every time unless youre on business trip and need to work between.

Depending where you live, you need an hour to get to the airport the amount of time it takes to get to/from the airport is the most significant variable. For people inside the 610 loop, it's less than 30 minutes. An hour less than 15 minutes with TSAPre or A-List for security and idle time waiting to board. 30 minutes to board. An hour flight. 30 minutes to land taxi gate unload. 15 minutes to get luggage Carry on only.

About 4 2 hours and 15 minutes. Then another 15 to get a rental 0 minutes to open your Uber app.

By that time you might as well have driven, beat your flight, and have your own vehicle return home you have saved 4 hours round trip and were able to get something done other than windshield time

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You're doing it wrong.

Mr. AGSPRT04 said:

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coastsrs said:

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Distance matters. And a Hou-Dallas flight, door to door driving is probably best every time unless youre on business trip and need to work between.

Depending where you live, you need an hour to get to the airport the amount of time it takes to get to/from the airport is the most significant variable. For people inside the 610 loop, it's less than 30 minutes. An hour less than 15 minutes with TSAPre or A-List for security and idle time waiting to board. 30 minutes to board. An hour flight. 30 minutes to land taxi gate unload. 15 minutes to get luggage Carry on only.

About 4 2 hours and 15 minutes. Then another 15 to get a rental 0 minutes to open your Uber app.

By that time you might as well have driven, beat your flight, and have your own vehicle return home you have saved 4 hours round trip and were able to get something done other than windshield time

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You're doing it wrong.

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Houston to Dallas is a wash. Any other significant town other than and further than dallas and flying wins everytime.

And I have Southwest Airlines list preferred. I was averaging it.

I could easily say if you live in Woodlands and leave at 3am and drive 120mph whike getting a blowjob the entire way without stopping you can make it in 2 hours to the metroplex.

You're doing it wrong too.

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Houston to Dallas is a wash. Any other significant town other than and further than dallas and flying wins everytime.

And I have Southwest Airlines list preferred. I was averaging it.

I could easily say if you live in Woodlands and leave at 3am and drive 120mph whike getting a blowjob the entire way without stopping you can make it in 2 hours to the metroplex.

You're doing it wrong too.

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Austin not significant because of the tsips, right??!?!?? (missed the "and further" part)

I'm not sure why it's so hard to understand that where you live in relation to the airport is the most significant variable in this. If you're driving from the Woodlands, past IAH, to Hobby, to fly to Dallas, it probably is a wash. That you choose to live in South Dallas doesn't make my statement any less true.

Mr. AGSPRT04 said:

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I'm not sure why it's so hard to understand that where you live in relation to the airport is the most significant variable in this. If you're driving from the Woodlands, past IAH, to Hobby, to fly to Dallas, it probably is a wash. That you choose to live in South Dallas doesn't make my statement any less true.

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Houston is damn big geographically and population.

So tell me, where in the Woodlands would you be getting on this high-speed rail at?

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So tell me, where in the Woodlands would you be getting on this high-speed rail at?

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This. The proposed terminus station in Houston is near 290/10/610 intersection. So Most of Houston would have significant travel time to or from the station.

gindaloon said:

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So tell me, where in the Woodlands would you be getting on this high-speed rail at?

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This. The proposed terminus station in Houston is near 290/10/610 intersection. So Most of Houston would have significant travel time to or from the station.

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Our 'hood has already been up in arms about this terminus. Some of those people will fight to the death to keep it out.

Out of curiosity, do high speed rails in other countries have significant delays due to weather? do the trains slow down, or cease operation if there is a thunderstorm?

I just got stuck on a 90 minute flight that took six hours to reach the destination because the runway was too foggy to land (3 aborted landings and a refuel stop in Huntsville, AL before we finally got on the ground).

If a high speed train was significantly more reliable for schedule, then I think this would make more sense.

HerschelwoodHardhead said:

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Out of curiosity, do high speed rails in other countries have significant delays due to weather? do the trains slow down, or cease operation if there is a thunderstorm?

I just got stuck on a 90 minute flight that took six hours to reach the destination because the runway was too foggy to land (3 aborted landings and a refuel stop in Huntsville, AL before we finally got on the ground).

If a high speed train was significantly more reliable for schedule, then I think this would make more sense.

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Have you never watched Polar Express? Tom Hanks don't let that **** run late,yo! Dude drives that train through the worst weather and Canadian terrain ever all the way up to the North Pole.

Always on time

gindaloon said:

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So tell me, where in the Woodlands would you be getting on this high-speed rail at?

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This. The proposed terminus station in Houston is near 290/10/610 intersection. So Most of Houston would have significant travel time to or from the station.

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Sounds like it's 30 minutes or less from every part of town, regardless of time of day.

One thing that I always bring up on these train threads is that with the rising acceptance of conducting business by email with PDFs and by using apps like Go To Meeting we are substantially reducing the need for business travel and face to face meetings.
My company is headquartered in Dallas and I go to the home office maybe once a year.
In construction, I've built jobs all over the US and only need to visit the job site once a month. We run meetings over Go To Meeeting and use project management software to even reduce the need for phone calls. Ive hired people and trades without ever meeting them face to face. Hell we've got web cams on even our local projects so I dont even need to drive the few miles to see the progress.
The point is, the target audience that this rail line hopes to capture is reducing its travel need annually.
The olds are still resistive to technology. The current crop of students that will grow into business leaders will shun travel and face to face meetings as wasteful.
Just think about in your own line of work how technology (email, text messaging, smart phones, video conferencing, cloud based data sharing, etc) has reduced the need for you to get on the highway or on a plane.
The big talk now is driverless cars. High speed rail is a joke and has about the same allure as a grey hound bus.

I agree that technology reduces the need for travel, however, sometimes a face to face meeting is still better.

I was in Germany last week for a pre-inspection meeting. We hammered out engineering issues as well.

We had been trying to work out the engineering items for a bit, but once we were all in the same room, the communication became much better.

CDUB98 said:

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gindaloon said:

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So tell me, where in the Woodlands would you be getting on this high-speed rail at?

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This. The proposed terminus station in Houston is near 290/10/610 intersection. So Most of Houston would have significant travel time to or from the station.

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Our 'hood has already been up in arms about this terminus. Some of those people will fight to the death to keep it out.

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Where is this hood? There are no neighborhoods of any size near where this will end. It's all industrial areas along the loop, hempstead, north post oak, and katy rd.

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I agree that technology reduces the need for travel, however, sometimes a face to face meeting is still better.

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Of course it is sometimes better. Particularly in dispute resolution.
Sometimes a phone conference is better than face to face. I've found its much easier to stick to an agenda and stay on task on the phone then when meeting in person. Meetings are terribly inefficient. I've found contract negotiation substantially quicker using shared screens and phone conferences then meeting in person.
Regardless, high speed rail targets frequent travelers from Houston to Dallas and I believe this frequency is getting reduced.

JJxvi said:

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CDUB98 said:

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gindaloon said:

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So tell me, where in the Woodlands would you be getting on this high-speed rail at?

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This. The proposed terminus station in Houston is near 290/10/610 intersection. So Most of Houston would have significant travel time to or from the station.

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Our 'hood has already been up in arms about this terminus. Some of those people will fight to the death to keep it out.

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Where is this hood? There are no neighborhoods of any size near where this will end. It's all industrial areas along the loop, hempstead, north post oak, and katy rd.

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Northwest mall is nice neighborhood.

And that mall will have a Neiman Marcus before this train Gets built

Welcome to the 'hood.