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In order to have an economic impact (or to survive) transport has to connect two place which people want to travel between, Hooking Detroit to Chicago at higher speeds only makes sense if there's a market.
ANY attempts to build hi-speed rail using existing track w/o rebuilding the ballast and laying track designed for the speeds involved, will result in problems ranging from bumpy rides to derailments.
A Midwest hi-speed route that makes sense is the Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison-Minneapolis route which Wisconsin's insane and idiotic Governor decided wasn't worth it based upon a false idea of how maintenance and operation fees work--turning down $8 billion so he could turn around and squeeze the public employees for a tiny fraction of that amount.
The Chicago-Minneapolis corridor carries a lot of traffic--both human and freight. The freeway system is overloaded through about 1/2 the route.
But the biggest factors affecting mass transit areconvenience and accessibility.
To go from Menomonie to Pewaukee was once possible by rail, and possible by bus. Neither is now possible. In either case, an additional 35-50 miles must be covered using some other form of transit at BOTH ENDS.
The frequency of transport is very low, trains go through once each way each day, buses are more frequent, but not greatly so.
The unfortunate fact is that our transportation system was never designed as a system, but assembled from a hodge-podge of ad-hoc vehicles, largely under the influence of big oil, automobile manufacturers and truckers. What coordinated systems we had were largely disassembled as the freeway network expanded, and has been rebuild slowly in some areas since the 70's.
There's no convenient transfers between travel methods.
In Chicago, its possible to land at O'Hare, take a short train ride downtown and switch to bus or cab for the last bit of your journey--and it's cheap, too!
In Milwaukee, there are cabs and hotel courtesy vehicles as options from the airport. There's no direct and inexpensive transit from the airport into the city, and no rapid intra-urban transport (which is a shame, because 60 years ago Milwaukee had a pretty decent light rail line.) Chicago=cheap&fast, Milwaukee=expensive & cumbersome.
There's a lot of traffic from around the state to Madison, and it's a very long distance from Madison to the shores of Lake Superior. But many government agencies have people constantly driving back and for to meetings. Not only is all this driving wasteful of resources (including people,) but it's dangerous too. It's ~3 hours drive from Menomonie to Madison-200 miles. It's another 150 to Lake Superior ~ 2.25 hours. over 5 hours driving time, which with breaks takes 7-8 hours and leaves people exhausted.
Now that we have to arrive 2 hours before departure to fly, the length of the shortest practical flight is much longer than it used to be--in the time it takes to go to the airport, wait in line for some idiot to blow us all up, get checked in, get on, fly and get off, then travel from airport to destination--I can drive 300+ miles.
And any day now, requirements for id to pass from State to State will be required.
ANY attempts to build hi-speed rail using existing track w/o rebuilding the ballast and laying track designed for the speeds involved, will result in problems ranging from bumpy rides to derailments.
A Midwest hi-speed route that makes sense is the Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison-Minneapolis route which Wisconsin's insane and idiotic Governor decided wasn't worth it based upon a false idea of how maintenance and operation fees work--turning down $8 billion so he could turn around and squeeze the public employees for a tiny fraction of that amount.
The Chicago-Minneapolis corridor carries a lot of traffic--both human and freight. The freeway system is overloaded through about 1/2 the route.
But the biggest factors affecting mass transit areconvenience and accessibility.
To go from Menomonie to Pewaukee was once possible by rail, and possible by bus. Neither is now possible. In either case, an additional 35-50 miles must be covered using some other form of transit at BOTH ENDS.
The frequency of transport is very low, trains go through once each way each day, buses are more frequent, but not greatly so.
The unfortunate fact is that our transportation system was never designed as a system, but assembled from a hodge-podge of ad-hoc vehicles, largely under the influence of big oil, automobile manufacturers and truckers. What coordinated systems we had were largely disassembled as the freeway network expanded, and has been rebuild slowly in some areas since the 70's.
There's no convenient transfers between travel methods.
In Chicago, its possible to land at O'Hare, take a short train ride downtown and switch to bus or cab for the last bit of your journey--and it's cheap, too!
In Milwaukee, there are cabs and hotel courtesy vehicles as options from the airport. There's no direct and inexpensive transit from the airport into the city, and no rapid intra-urban transport (which is a shame, because 60 years ago Milwaukee had a pretty decent light rail line.) Chicago=cheap&fast, Milwaukee=expensive & cumbersome.
There's a lot of traffic from around the state to Madison, and it's a very long distance from Madison to the shores of Lake Superior. But many government agencies have people constantly driving back and for to meetings. Not only is all this driving wasteful of resources (including people,) but it's dangerous too. It's ~3 hours drive from Menomonie to Madison-200 miles. It's another 150 to Lake Superior ~ 2.25 hours. over 5 hours driving time, which with breaks takes 7-8 hours and leaves people exhausted.
Now that we have to arrive 2 hours before departure to fly, the length of the shortest practical flight is much longer than it used to be--in the time it takes to go to the airport, wait in line for some idiot to blow us all up, get checked in, get on, fly and get off, then travel from airport to destination--I can drive 300+ miles.
And any day now, requirements for id to pass from State to State will be required.
Edited by wizoddg
Updated - 22nd Feb 2012