Vancouver-Seattle-Portland High-Speed Rail Study History and Amtrak Cascades Option

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Originally Posted by BugsyPal

Just to be clear France would have had their vast nuclear power system with or without HSR. Indeed France like many European nations moved from steam powered locomotives (burning coal or oil) to either diesel but largely electric.

France has no natural oil nor natural gas reserves. What it uses of either must be imported and energy crisis of 1970's along with other factors sent government in search of solutions. Historically as with nearly everyone else France burned coal to produce electricity and still does but that substance makes up a small portion of overall power generation. There's hydropower and now renewables as well.............................................

When I bicycled through Europe in 1976, French trains were great for bridging the bicycle areas.

The nuclear power plants were a surprise. Stopped along the Loire River and the water temperature was like 90 degrees!!! Way, way hotter than would be found in a natural river. I then looked at a map and saw a string of nuclear power plants heading upriver.

I hope they have put in cooling towers and lakes since then.

The only complaint about the trains. I bought a ticket and left Paris. Converted all my money to Luxemborg "francs"??.

Conductor comes walking through the train and announces since this is a FAST train, there will be an additional fee and they wanted cash. What they didn't know it was a fast train when I bought the ticket???

Guess these days with the Euro it would not have been a problem.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

The only way a high speed train could actually be blazing fast would be if it only stopped at the giant metro areas and never stopped anywhere in-between. So huge city to huge city, non-stop. Which benefits business commuters and tourists with lots of money to spend. Now we are talking billions of dollars to provide a benefit for the already wealthy city living people..

High-speed, along with high-frequency and high-capacity, trains can leap-frog "sprawl", allowing development of residential/employment "satellites" on cheaper land.

You could live in Mt. Vernon and work in downtown Seattle, or live in downtown Seattle and work in Mt. Vernon, for instance. Not every train would have to stop in Mt. Vernon - through/express service could be provided. First/Business/Economy classes could be provided, like on planes.

The more choices you have, generally the lower the cost, since you're distributing demand while expanding supply. If you have fewer choices, you're limited by what the traffic will bear. The current situation drives up land costs the closer you are to a major urban "hub", since supply is limited and demand is high.

[Transmition]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

The only problem I have with the regular train is that it is so slow. It is slow because it stops in every little town and hamlet along the route. When the train is actually moving, it is faster than a car.

If you mean the light rail then I agree. It has far too many stops. Once it extends further outside the city they should really organize some way for some trains to skip several stops so that it speeds up commute times. You'd need passing zones for that though, it doesn't look like they have planned any.

[rkcarguy]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

The only way a high speed train could actually be blazing fast would be if it only stopped at the giant metro areas and never stopped anywhere in-between. So huge city to huge city, non-stop. Which benefits business commuters and tourists with lots of money to spend. Now we are talking billions of dollars to provide a benefit for the already wealthy city living people.

The high speed trains would provide no benefit to all the people living in small towns and in the country, or out near the state borders. However, all those people who can't use the high speed train are paying the taxes to build and support it. If they put it in, full length, the only people who get any benefit live in Portland or very close-by, or else they live in Olympia, or Seattle. No one else has any use for the train, they just get to pay for it. And the way things usually work, the voters in Seattle and Olympia who benefit from the train will have enough votes to override the folks who don't have a use for the train and don't want to pay for it.

This is already a big problem. A huge amount of our tax $$$ go to a ferry system that is grossly under-staffed to the point cancelled sailings are the norm and it's sold-out full months in advance in the summer. Peoples car tabs are heading for the $1,000/year range for newer vehicles with the Sound Transit tax thrust upon them, but ST won't serve their area for another decade. Worse yet I'm hearing and seeing pictures and videos that they've given the homeless free passes for ST and there has been drug use attacks stabbings and even people s**ting on the floor. This isn't helping the "push" to mass transit.

[mhays25]

Not something I've ever seen on transit here. Sometimes scuzzy people, sure.

[jabogitlu]

Fantastic, another thread gets flushed down The Great Right toilet.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by rkcarguy

A huge amount of our tax $$$ go to a ferry system that is grossly...

Give them row-boats! Or make them "drive around"!