The real solution should be a massive intercity bullet train program that connects major transit hubs, like the interstate highway buildout. The massive infrastructure spend would kickstart the US economy and provide thousands of jobs.
The real solution should be a massive intercity bullet train program that connects major transit hubs, like the interstate highway buildout. The massive infrastructure spend would kickstart the US economy and provide thousands of jobs.
Bullet trains would be good in tighter networks of cities. Southern Cal, Acela corridor.
But I'm just not sure the demand would be there for longer distances unless it's so cheap that it's worth the extra time.
Like what's China to Kunmung, a 6 hour flight vs a 12 hour train, at a comparable cost?
Sounds good if you live on the East Coast.
Even with Japanese level high speed rail NYC to LA still takes much much longer than flying.
You need to buy land. Disrupt wildlife, and various ecosystems.
The government should of bailed out Spirit instead. They served a public good.
Allowing lower to middle income people to travel helps everyone.
Trains have been proven to be able to go at least 375mph [0]. That would make NYC->SF take 6.9 hours to travel the 4162 km. The current average flight time from NYC to SF is 6.7 hours.
So, it's at least technically possible.
China is doing R&D on a partial-vacuum train (basically Musk's hyperloop thing) with a target of 1,243 mph[1]. That's probably a pipe dream, but worth mentioning nonetheless.
> The government should of [sic] bailed out Spirit instead.
I'd be okay with this if all the taxpayers were granted equal shares that their collective money could have purchased at an imputed no-bailout price.
0: L0 Series SCMaglev
1: T-Flight train
That's straight math. Not assuming any stops or slow downs.
According to Gemini this hypothetical train would take about 18 hours.
It would also cost hundreds of billions of dollars and a decade to build.
Doesn't do much for seeing Uncle John next Tuesday.
I like trains. I like them a lot. But they don't work over long distances. Particular when you have dozens of state and city jurisdictions to cross.
Each of them get a vote.
Honestly I'd be happy just to have quality HSR on the East Coast. Boston to Richmond takes like 12 hours right now.
Maybe the West Coast could get a Seattle to San Diego route.
> The current average flight time from NYC to SF is 6.7 hours.
What's your source for this? I take this flight a lot and I find it hard to believe it's more than 5.5-5.75 on average. Looking at the last few weeks for one of them[0] supports my experience.
Maybe your number has TSA/airport time included.
[0] https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/ua1777
It's probably scheduled times. I find that time in the air ends up being about an hour less than the time on the ticket.
Why do people want to generate jobs? I'd rather generate a jobless utopia where we all do art.
Hate to break it to you but the average guy that does manual labour would more likely become a criminal than a musician if you deleted his job.
What's that saying about idle hands.
Jobs root people to their communities and give them purpose in life.
Because today the options are "jobs exist" or "people starve in the street".
Starvation is not a likely outcome from job loss in the western world.
Check out the etymology of “utopia”