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Texas’ Long-Awaited Bullet Train Plans to Start Construction

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by tinman, Nov 28, 2018.

  1. Nook

    Nook Member

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    This is the biggest load of BS.

    Houston has a diverse economy and a perfect strategic location.

    Further, if you think Detroit fell only because Ford and company cut jobs, you are greatly mistaken. The fall of Detroit is many faceted and has more to do with corruption and government action/inaction.
     
  2. jev5555

    jev5555 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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  3. CometsWin

    CometsWin Breaker Breaker One Nine

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    Soros.
     
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  4. Buck Turgidson

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    Yeah, maybe. I might be on their side, but we're dealing with a whole bunch of crap re: Kinder Morgan pipeline right through the Edwards and Trinity aquifers. They swear the groundwater will be safe, but they've had many, many serious leaks on the existing pipeline. Look at the Bastrop one a couple of years ago when they had to evacuate a community or three.

    Why should a private company be able to take your land and say, "sorry, but we're doing this"?
     
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  5. droxford

    droxford Member

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    I agree.

    Houston was founded as a inland port city for commerce and trade of cotton, imported/exported along Buffalo bayou through what is now the ship channel and to the gulf.

    Yes, Oil and Gas is now our bread and butter, and it would be a HUGE kick to the nuts if that industry went belly-up. ... but Houston would still be an inland port city for import/export, just as it always has been.
     
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  6. robbie380

    robbie380 ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ)
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    I don't really get the push for rail. I mean it would be cool to have but I mean it isn't going to be cheap to use it at all. From their site it says fares would be competitive with airline tickets. I know it's a lot faster than taking a megabus, but I just don't get it for the overall cost.

    DoD is echoing a lot of my sentiment.
     
  7. rimrocker

    rimrocker Contributing Member

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    That industry has to be phased out. And quickly. We may be at peak passenger jet too. High speed rail is critical and there needs to be lots more of it.
     
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  8. Deckard

    Deckard Blade Runner
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    Putting aside the unnecessary political comment that shouldn't be in Hangout, streetcars have nothing to do with getting high speed rail connecting the major cities of Texas.
     
  9. mfastx

    mfastx Member
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    I'm not sure if you've used high speed rail before, but it's far and away the most convenient, comfortable, and in cases where the cities are 200-300 miles apart, the fastest way to travel. By far, it's not even close.

    The Acela in the NEC is amazing and it isn't even true high speed rail like this would be. People want the best option.
     
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  10. geeimsobored

    geeimsobored Contributing Member

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    What makes the Acela line so popular is that you can go downtown to downtown (since train stations are in city centers as opposed to airports). Factor in security, travel time to and from airports, etc.. and trains start to look pretty good.

    The Acela line has flat out destroyed the airline shuttle market in the Northeast. Hourly shuttle routes were the norm between cities in the Northeast but the Acela line has basically taken over the market.
     
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  11. robbie380

    robbie380 ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ)
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    I've used the TGV before and yes it's amazing, but like I said it's the cost that is the problem. I also only travel to Dallas like once a year for Texas OU and I live in Austin. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
     
  12. Fyreball

    Fyreball Contributing Member

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    That is a far, FAR cry from calling us the next Detroit. Hyperbole aside, in that very article it states that Houston is better positioned now than in the 80s because of the push for diversification. Natural gas prices dropping helped us through the last recession, and this time around we're probably better positioned with the massive push of infrastructure within the TMC (not to mention some smaller business initiatives such as the EaDo and East End revitalization projects). Obviously EVERY city strives to be more economically diverse, but to imply that Houston is in some sort of perilous spot right now is a false narrative. Yes, we're looking down the barrel of another recession, but Houston as a whole will be just fine.
     
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  13. geeimsobored

    geeimsobored Contributing Member

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    You're also not really the target traveler for these sorts of routes. The target for these sorts of routes is the corporate travel market between Texas cities. If you look purely at origin and destination traffic between Houston and Dallas, the market is quite massive. Southwest Airlines was built on Houston-Dallas traffic (which is why Southwest killed the first attempt at high speed rail in the 90s that incidentally was going to be built by the French TGV system).

    The airlines mint money on the shuttle flights between Houston and Dallas. There is more than enough traffic between Houston and Dallas to sustain a rail route. There's a reason why foreign investors have targeted this as a rail route for decades. The land between Houston and Dallas is flat which makes building a rail line much easier and it has a critical mass of travel between the two cities with enough corporate traffic to boost yields. You can make a killing on last minute corporate fares the way the airlines do today.
     
  14. Sajan

    Sajan Member

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    Whenever I travel to europe or asia I choose rail over flying almost always. The time and hassle you spend at the airport just to fly 1-2 hours is not worth it to me.

    Plus I can take more than 3oz of crap without worrying or checking in.
     
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  15. mfastx

    mfastx Member
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    I mean if your stance is that you don't care about the project because it won't benefit you directly then that's reasonable.
     
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  16. jev5555

    jev5555 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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    Never said that. The vagueness of the word "future" does not imply "right now".
     
  17. robbie380

    robbie380 ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ)
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    I don’t have any sort of problem with this. If a private company wants to build it with private fund then let them go for it. They are just going to need a hell of a lot of riders to pay for it if it actually costs between $12b to $15b.

    https://www.texascentral.com/ridership/

    If I’m reading that right then it’s only projected to have 13 million total riders by 2050. First off I don’t understand those projections because it says 6 million by 2029 and only 13 million by 2050. I honestly don’t understand that projection.

    https://www.bloghouston.com/2015/05/high-speed-rail-dallas-houston-high-speed-bull/

    This guy is obviously a total critic of it but I just found his commentary when I was trying to find ridership projections and total number of people that travel between Houston and Dallas by plane per year. If you don’t feel like looking at his commentary it is about 4000 people flying per day between Houston and Dallas.

    Let’s say this rail line acquires all those people plus an extra 1000 per day and that a round trip ticket costs $400 on average. That puts it around $750 mil in revs. Let’s assume a profit margin of 15% which seems high but I can’t find profit margins on high speed rail. This thing would take like over a hundred years to pay off for the investors if it’s only a private investment and I feel like all the numbers I’m using are very very generous.

    Help me if I’m off base with those numbers.

    Btw I think this would be really cool to have but I don’t see it happening as a solely private venture.
     
  18. rimrocker

    rimrocker Contributing Member

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    US high speed rail stands a good chance of going like previous infrastructure revolutions. Early in our history, canals were privately funded until they started going under. Then, the government stepped in. Same with some early toll roads. The feds built the interstates. I suspect we will end up with a national high speed rail system at some point. I also think rail will eventually have a higher success rate than canals, of which only the Erie made decent money.
     
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  19. TMac'n

    TMac'n Contributing Member

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    Looks like things are moving forward, and Texas Central is now contracting with Spain's Renfe instead of the Japanese makers of the Shinkansen



    On a side note, who here had any idea that DRAYTON MCLANE was the chairman for Texas Central?
     
  20. MystikArkitect

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    Nice! With autonomous electric cars and bullet trains inching closer to reality, we won't have to depend as much on oil to move us around.

    I hope the City leaders are imagining a future without Oil and Gas. Because it's coming. And this time it'll be permanent. What's going to happen to all these gas stations though? Repurposed car charging spots?
     
    Sajan likes this.

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