There has been a lot of talk about making a triangle bullet train between Houston, San Antonio and Dallas, and I can not help but think that the traffic would be WAY lighter if there were speed trains to take to Dallas and San Antonio. People could be on a train every 10 minutes, and get out of harms way.... I wonder if New Orleans had one how much of a difference it could have made. They are all over Europe, I think it may be time to look at them more seriously here in the USA. DD
That would be awesome. Definitely would help the tourism industry over here. But I think the car manufacturers lobbyist are too powerful to let anything like that ever happen over here. Not to mention the costs would be into the upper billions. It would kick ass though if I could just hop on a train and go to Vegas or Colorado or even San Antonio to watch the Rockets beat the Sperms.
How would bullet trains help? When you have millions of people moving in one day at the same time, bullet trains are like using a teaspoon to dig a well.
DD - Interesting thought, but I don't think it would make a huge difference because of the way people want to evacuate. Since there was early warning (and panic due to Katrina), people wanted to not just leave, but leave *with their stuff*. A car is perfect for that. A train, not so much. There are stories about people at the airport having tons of crap crammed into suitcases and carryons, etc. I don't see how it would be any different for a train. Would it be easier to fit on there? Probably. The other way to think about it, though, is in terms of just plain train service. I think that would have been a good idea. I don't see why they couldn't have set up a commuter line to get people out of Galveston up to Clear Lake and the mandatory evacuation zones, as well as downtown (since we all saw what happened during Allison). A plain old train would work just fine because of the amount of time available. This might be the best way to get the poor in the city out, as well as those at the edges of I-45. Also, don't bullet train systems have *fewer* train cars / services since they go so fast? I think that's another reason a plain commuter rail system would be ideal in this case. Anyway, this shows that the government (state, local, and yes, federal) has a long way to go to figure out how to evacuate a major metropolitan area in case of emergency. The mayor and governor have both done a great job from what I've seen (online anyway), and the obstacles that have occurred are those that anyone with foresight could see but not really address (like the freeway exodus / parking lot) early. Hopefully, we learn more lessons and Houston sets up a system to show the country/world how it's done in the long run. Keep hoping it goes to the east...
a bullet train would be awesome...i can travel to dallas and see them get beat by the rockets with such convenience
But people could still rent cars when they get to the destination. apostolic3 said it best though (see above).
There would have to be excess capacity available in terms of trains, track switching and station capacity (including car parking) to allow for huge spikes in traffic that might happen twice in one year or not for the next four years. There would be huge Deadhead mileage on the trips back to Metro Houston prior to the Event. Again, there would be huge Deadhead mileage on the trips back to Metro DFW & San Antonio after the Event when the displaced would be allowed to return to the Metro Houston area. Telling a family that has sat around a hotel, motel or shelter for perhaps four days that they would have to wait an extra day or two before being allowed to embark on a Bullet train for the trip back to Metro Houston because it wasn't their time yet would be a difficult sell to make. Even if there would be a Bullet train system in place to move one million people in three days, significant infrastructure in San Antonio and Metro DFW would be needed to house the displaced people from Metro Houston. Based on Houston's experience with New Orleans and Katrina, it is unlikely that much spare housing infrastructure would be available in San Antonio and Metro DFW for a random spike in customers. If we use the every ten minutes number for a train departure from Metro Houston, then Train Capacity: 1500 People moved per hour: 9000 People moved in 24 hours: 216,000 People moved in 72 Hours: 648,000 Train Capacity: 2000 People moved per hour: 12,000 People moved in 24 hours: 288,000 People moved in 72 Hours: 864,000 Train Capacity: 2500 People moved per hour: 15,000 People moved in 24 hours: 360,000 People moved in 72 Hours: 1,080,000 Train Capacity: 3000 People moved per hour: 18,000 People moved in 24 hours: 432,000 People moved in 72 Hours: 1,296,000 Larger train capacities move enough people in a timely manner, but if we go with a scenario of three stations in Metro Houston, that would mean a departure every 30 minutes from each station. Train car capacity would probably be roughly 100 people, so we would be loading 25 - 30 cars in thirty minutes. Likely doable, but people couldn't be allowed to dawdle. How many stations would be available in Metro Houston for embarkation/embarcation on the Bullet trains? Where would the stations be located? If we have only a few stations available, then there would be some gridlock involved getting to them. If there are numerous stations dispersed throughout the Metro Houston area, then it would be rather costly building the additional spur lines. Since some of the intention would be to remove perhaps 100,00 vehicles from the roads, then Bullet train passengers would expect reasonable security and protection for their cars & trucks sitting in parking lots. With local police agencies in emergency mode for the upcoming Event, crucial manpower would be diverted to guard parking lots. It would be possible to reduce the number of people onsite by using security cameras monitored at a remote location not impacted by the Event.
Of course we could rely *entirely* on trains to evacuate the whole Houston metro area, they would help tremendously. Right now, we depend almost entirely on family vehicles to move people. Trains, whether bullet or not, will become a much hotter topic in the US in the next five to ten years as gas prices rise and the term "peak oil" takes on a bigger role in our lives. Not only can they move people and goods effectively, but they also do so fuel-efficiently.
We talked about this a while back in another thread- there was briefly a plan about ten years ago to build a TGV linking the texas triangle. IIRC the Continental, SW, etc got it killed, but it's by far the best way to travel for trips in the 2-5 hour range. even the much maligned acela is preferable to sitting in traffic on the jersey turnpike/I95 corrider for hours. to a point someone else made though, i'm not sure how bullet trains are more efficient that regular trains, and w/o the spur infrastructure in place to get people to the long haul lines you're still going to have some bottlenecks. what about building the stations adjacent to large sporting venues? these places already have parking and ingress/egree infrastructure in place to handle large amounts of people at once.
As much as I would like to see high speed trains connecting TX cities, I don't see how it would have helped here. Personally, I would have preferred to get my own car to safety plus the added benefit of stuffing it full of my stuff. America needs to really think about the best way to evacuate its cities. Whether its for a hurricane, nuclear reactor release, chemical plant explosion with dangerous releases, etc. Whatever the disaster scenario, it is clear most cities have not given it enough thought.
True, and the other side of the coin is... who's meeting these people at their destinations to pick them up? And is there a traffic jam there now? This is entirely way too much humanity to be moving this quickly.
We already have trains that are immune to traffic....regular rail lines. Set up a mile long train of cattle cars then herd the folks in. It may smell, it may be cramped, but hey....atleast theyre alive.
For evacuation, bullet trains can help the poor and homeless who has little to begin with and hence not much luggage. So my thinking is that it can help. Of course there will still be freeway congestion problem like today but it can be slightly better.
I've been a proponent of this for years now It is one of the things i feel that will make Houston . . hell TEXAS better. Rocket River so . .in short . . . HELL YEA
