I would wait and forgive it closer to the midterms
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Eh, absolutely nothing has happened yet.
This is one of those believe it only when you absolutely see it things.
Just watch the GOPers pop up on all sorts of media whining about their pappy paying so everyone else should also have it shitty in perpetuity. Then the sucker dems will negotiate themselves down to less than even 10k.
Thatâs my prediction.
ez prediction obv.
Doubt itâs a good idea close to elections. Shit tons of voters gonna hate other people getting free stuffâŚas usual.
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https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1377604924649902081
The California - Las Vegas - Phoenix axis seems like a no-brainer.
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Is the US building the line from Montreal to Windsor? Pretty generous.
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Itâs traditional when you build infrastructure to plan for the nation on your southern border to pay for it.
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The LA-Vegas drive is often a nightmare because CA refuses to expand the highway from Barstow to the NV border to 6 lanes. I guess they donât see any point in paying to make it easier for people to spend their money in Nevada.
Hopefully CA doesnât have a say in the high-speed rail line.
I think this might be one of those âa lot of people donât knowâ things that actually most people do know, but just in case Iâll mention it anyway and risk being that guy.
Amtrak doesnât own most of the rail it operates on. Itâs owned by the freight companies, and the only reason they let Amtrak use it is because the government basically says they have to. So that adds a pretty substantial complication to many potential high speed lines. The actual owners have little incentive to upgrade. In their perfect world Amtrak wouldnât exist.
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This doesnât strike me as something most people would know, that I would expect them to know, or that Iâd think theyâd be able to come up with the right answer if you told them to think about it and offered a prize if they had the right answer. I wouldnât be surprised if you asked people to name a company that is in the top three for railroad track ownership and most answered Amtrak. BNSF and Union Pacific just donât have the same brand recognition.
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Shouldnât San Antonio/Austin - Dallas/Fort Worth - Houston be a triangle?
I thought I remembered it being mentioned in a previous discussion somewhere. Maybe not. Hereâs a map of who owns what:
If you ever take a long train trip in the US you will spend a lot of time parked on a siding while very long freight trains rumble past, because freight has priority. This means your train will often be very late, which is a big part of what makes passenger train travel unpleasant in much of the country.
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The grey lines on that map are literally hundreds of different companies.
I like to use Amtrak as an example of what it would be like for common folk if we had privately owned roads.
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Why no link to Texas from anywhere else?
Itâs a long way. Realistically, people are going to fly.
Stupid question: Is the railway network in the US electrified? I somehow only have pictures of unelectrified tracks from films in my head.
I would think/hope they are talking about higspeed trains that require new/different tracks like maglev not just âhigh speedâ trains like the corrupt idiots in Florida have built connecting Mia/Ft Lauderdale/West Palm which is just a regular train that has fewer stops.
Nope itâs not. Canada either.
Anticipation for New Texas secession.
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So much this. To be fair, Iâm an epileptic and donât have a choice when it comes to driving. Itâs why basically all of America is unlivable for me but most of Europe is not.
A lot of Americans have absolutely no idea how beneficial a well-funded public transport system is to a country. In terms of both the economy, environment, and even psychologically itâs huge.
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Like you say most Euro cities have great public transit and it is never even a question of whether to rent a car or not. The amount of US cities that is true in has to be what? NYC?
If OKC had a subway that I could walk 1-2 miles to/from and get to work I would do it in a heartbeat. I imagine most people would. It doesnât happen because it is expensive and probably the fear is that it doesnât get used. A lot of cities just kind of half ass it and it becomes a total failure and then that is probably what gets pointed to in the future if more ambitious projects are proposed. OKC just put a trolley with rails in the street and the overhead wires that covers like 5% of the city. Almost every time I have seen it, it is empty. Itâs because it isnât good for anything besides bar hopping.
The excuse of âItâs a big countryâ falls apart when on a micro level very few big cities here have anything resembling modern public transit. High speed rail would be awesome but it is never going to happen here.
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