Forum - View topicINTEREST: Maryland Governor Seeks Federal Funding After Riding Japan's Maglev Train
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Polycell
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tasogarenootome
 Posts: 593 |
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I'm happy anytime someone wants to improve mass transit in our area, but I think our existing infrastructure needs to be fixed up before we go for some whole new system, which the maglev seems to be. Japan has bullet trains and high speed rail, but they also have a huge consumer base that uses that in tandem with commuter and slower trains. Their whole rail system seems better than ours by a long shot. That's why I think they can support newer train tech better. I do wish more people used trains stateside - it just feels like a big catch 22.
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5884 Location: Virginia, United States |
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As others have said, no one wants to spend money on infrastructure. They would rather have gas lines blow up houses killing people, and water mains to burst flooding neighborhoods and wash cars away, than spending the big bucks to fix the problems.
Kinda sad that Japan is better at making rail technology workable for them. When the next 'Carrington Event' solar storm hits us, and the power goes out for good (because we didn't invest our money in updating our electrical grid), be prepared to walk for several days or months to where your local representatives and senators are with pitchforks and torches. But hurry before the cannibals get them first, or you. |
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yaki-udon
Posts: 83 |
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Speaking of the future of passenger trains in the U.S., when I was around 8 years old, I learned that the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi was built in 1856. It's embarrassing for me to say this, but I was a train otaku at that time.
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Michformer
 Posts: 13 Location: Worcester, MA |
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As if Republicans were, by nature, technophobic -_- Leave your political labels at the door. |
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Polycell
Posts: 4623 |
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nargun
Posts: 926 |
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It's a bit more complex than that: "operating costs" includes track-access fees, and railways in the US are a regulated monopoly, including the fees they charge for access. Which is to say "amtrak doesn't have enough revenue to cover its operating costs" largely reflects policy decisions rather than economics. [and the low ticket prices charged has to allow for the fact that road transport isn't charged anything near cost recovery and most airlines spend half their time bankrupt. Again, policy decisions: as you act in the world, you change the world, and so change how you should act.] A lot of the problems in the post-war period with passenger rail were the result of life-expired infrastructure: rail vehicles and plant lasts about fifty years, thirty in good condition. There'd been some large recapitalisations on either side of the first world war in the US, which basically started to get shagged out in the fifties: with collapsing passenger numbers -- subsidised roads -- there wasn't the money to upgrade. In japan, the rail system was built much more recently -- the toukaidou line opened in 1889! -- and with the way the cycles worked and the repairs from war damage it meant that the equipment didn't start to fall over until the '70s, by which time the economics of transport were rather different. |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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My comment was in the lines of, the republicans hate to invest in anything "state controlled", be it education, health/care, space programs, etc. Since Amtrak is state controlled, a republican governor ought to hate investing it to, therefore my surprise. But we have a saying over here "If the suit is your size, then put it on!" (si te cayo el saco, pontelo!). BTW, I don't see your political label hang at the door 
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niastyle
Posts: 73 |
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Actually it's not "yet", but "anymore". There used to be an Amtrak station in Las Vegas, but it closed in 1997. It used to be in the Plaza Hotel downtown. Before I moved here to Vegas in 95 from New York, the first 3 times I visited was by Amtrak. I was surprised and disappointed when Amtrak stopped service here. I wish there was a high speed train that went from Vegas to LA. It would certainly cut down on the traffic at airports and on the 1 two lane highway into California. That is a service that is desperately needed. |
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Nanica54
Posts: 3 |
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It depends on where one lives. Here in and around Boston, Mass. a lot of people, not just the poor, take public transportation to get around: buses, trains and commuter rail. Ridership has been steadily increasing for the last several years. Yet, service is abysmal (last winter was particularly bad), trains are old, the agency running the system is heavily in debt, etc. No one wants to fix it. Likewise, not enough money is being spent on road upkeep or anything infrastructure-related around here and everything is old. My feeling is that tax dollars are not being used appropriately and if we really wanted, in this area we could have great public transportation and also a maglev to connect us to other major cities. I would definitely take it over a plane ride. |
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chrisbachmann
Posts: 2 |
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Maryland was going to do one in the late 90's early 00's along I-95. A lot of the zoning is already in place from that effort, so it may actually come to be this time. The previous Republican Governor got the ICC built despite complaints, but didn't plan for a Metro route, which would have been a good idea. Hogan may be looking at this as his Maryland legacy. There has also been some advocating for a more regional approach. ABCD-E-FG-H. First linking the 4 major population centers in central MD (Annapolis, Baltimore, Columbia, DC), adding on the Eastern shore, link up for Frederick and Gaithersburg, then up to Hagerstown. This may be the first part of the network?
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Greboruri
Posts: 382 Location: QBN, NSW, Australia |
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But it’s actually cheaper to take to take the Ainokaze Toyama Railway from Hakata to Toyama station, then get on the shinkansen to Tokyo. Like nearly ¥9,000 cheaper. The time is roughly the same, so why in hell would you make it more expensive for yourself? Also I don’t think you’re factoring time (and cost) to get from Narita to Tokyo itself. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14813 |
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AFAIK, Amtrak as a whole isn't profitable, though not sure about the Northeast Corridor. Even the Concorde, the only supersonic passenger airliner, had to be mothballed.
"The US passenger rail system is poor. This is because railroads in the United States are focused on freight transport. If you look at the data for the cost of freight transport, the United States actually has one of the best freight systems in the world (in terms of cost to move stuff around). There's an inherent trade-off at play here - freight and passenger trains often travel on the same rails, with the difference being that nobody cares if freight travels slowly but they do care if passenger trains travel slowly. Higher speed tracks require more maintenance, however. So you can either have fast passenger trains but expensive freight, or slow passenger trains but inexpensive freight. Since the automobile dominates in the US, it makes perfect sense to favor freight." Developing maglev means laying out a whole new set of rails. Has to be straighter with shallow curves and elevated in many areas since there can't be railroad crossings where the train has to slow down every time. Can get quite expensive, particularly if eminent domain has be used to fight resisting land owners. |
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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As far as I understand it, in the USA you have a freight railway which happens to have some passenger traffic run on it. Since the tracks are owned by the freight companies, they understandably prioritise their own trains above Amtrak's.
Here in the UK, we have a passenger railway which happens to also have some freight traffic. Freight trains are the lowest in the pecking order here, and will frequently be stopped to let passenger trains pass, especially on single track lines. The tracks are owned by the government, and all the train companies have to buy access rights to run their trains over them. |
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Polycell
Posts: 4623 |
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I don't know about Britain, but the trains I've seen here can easily several miles long(with multiple front and back locomotives for hilly areas); I'm not even sure there's a length limit on those things beyond what the couplings will bear. It's quite the fascinating sight - if you're not the unfortunate bastard stuck behind it for ten or twenty minutes.
There are some places going to light rail(no freight) systems to get around the issue, but at least around here they just bought track from the railroad so they only got one line that goes back and forth from one suburb. |
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