Obama: 8 Billion For High-Speed Rail, 0 for NASA & JSC

Maybe then we should get rid of those government boondoggles called "airports" and the FAA. I mean the planes only fly from specific locations to specific locations at certain times. We should just drive our own cars from city to city. For that matter what's the deal with having to drive on these "interstates"? I should be able to drive anywhere I want at any speed I want without the government telling me what routes I should take.

 

Are you comparing airtravel to high speed rail? Rails compete with cars mostly because the cost to maintain a track of much longer length is huge.

Your argument is so dumb and it has nothing to do with my post at all.

 

I bet you're glad you didn't make this a yes/no poll on whether we thought it was a good idea.

 

Oh, by all means, go RIGHT ahead and tell me how air-tight the logic is that we should keep doing something because we have history with it.

Where's my popcorn? Hell, I might need a beer for this one. Possibly some weed... where's andymoongladiatorowdy?

 

Because we are the leader in manned space travel thus have a huge advantage and responsibility to continue? Or because how manned space travel brings interest from the scientific community all over the world? Or without space exploration most of the alternative energy technologies are 20 years behind where they are now?

When you are awesome at something, throwing away all you have learned by not doing it anymore is a huge waste.

 

You will have to excuse the Shoveling One...considering he is a NASA employee, this topic evidently hits home.

 

ORLY??

 

High speed rail lines are meant to compete with airlines for city to city travel. We aren't talking about subways or light rails here which compete with car travel.

Anyway you still have ignored that your freedom argument is highly constrained already given you are dependent on government infrastructure and laws to drive your car already.

 

Truth is not Fiction.

 

shovel face tries to be a libertarian so he hates government spending. Now he is acting like he likes NASA federal spending and hates mass transit as it is a liberal thing that helps the environment. Tom Delay or someone schooled him in this type of logic.

If THE MARKET i.e God wanted mass transit it would be done without the hated government spending. Now all NASA spending as it is govenment should be banned, too. However even his idol Ron Paul who has an office around the NASA area does not run around trashing the Apollo Program as an abomination since it was not done by private corporations, but rather the government. What is a libertarian to do.

 

I'd MUCH rather catch a train from downtown Houston to downtown Austin than have to get to the airport and fly. It takes just as much time to get out there and check in as it would to hop on a train and go.

 

Not really. I don;t have to use headphone in my car and I can eat or fart or leave 5 minutes late or stop at a restaurant. Pretty large freedom difference. I love the idea of expanding light rails and subways but these high speed rails for Texas would be dumb.


I know what the lines will replace. They just basically suck for that purpose. The best idea would be such a niche move that they would have limited use. The major plan is IAH to downtown. I would be for that but any Dallas/Ft. Worth line would be so costly to maintain it would be silly compared to flight or car travel. Japan and Europe are ideal for them, not here.

 

Until the security gets as tight. and a train is not a high speed rail. the track maintenance is not nearly as expensive.

 

Here's a link to a .pdf map of the proposed routes.

Oh man .... this would be SO awesome.

http://www.fra.dot.gov/Downloads/RRdev/hsrmap.pdf

 

No high speed rail to Vegas?

Fail

 

High speed rail is great. But we shouldn't give up on manned space travel. The last time our old space program ran out before the shuttle we lost amazing amounts of knowledge and resources. The shuttle program runs out this year, and the new program isn't scheduled until 2015, and it's way behind schedule already. We are going to lose a lot

 

High speed retail competes with air travel just as much as cars compete with light rail.

 

and it will. that's one of the major attractions to rail travel now, but it's sure to change. that, and not leaving the ground...

 

riiiiiiight!