things that make you go 'hmmm'

[JustSomeOldGuy]

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/transpor ... n-top-mind

If they continue to call it a 'bullet-train', will the dems vote against it?

[Jusme]

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/transpor ... n-top-mind

If they continue to call it a 'bullet-train', will the dems vote against it?

Only if it is a high capacity, assault train.

[Abraham]

sniff...it should be called the "the quick social justice and diversity train", sob, cough, sob...or perhaps "the commie commuter train" choke, sob, cough, sob...

[Redneck_Buddha]

Triggered.

[DevilDawg]

Well they certainly pitched it to a POTUS that isn't afraid to use eminent domain to steal land.

[Abraham]

DevilDawg,

More info please.

[MechAg94]

So no public funds, but are they wanting govt help to get eminent domain seizures?

I haven't heard details. The picture on the article shows an elevated train. Is that the plan? Will a land owner still have access to what is left underneath? That might be a bit easier to swallow than a large and wide right of way that is fenced off. It would be more like power lines or pipelines.

If it is elevated, it seems to me they might be able to locate it in the existing interstate highway right of way. Not perfect, but no fewer problems than trying to get a separate right of way. I wonder how straight this thing needs to be.


I guess my questions/comments are not gun related.

[Jusme]

I know at one time when Perry was still Governor, they had drawn up several plans for a high speed rail system, that would mostly utilize interstate right of ways. Some would have almost no private property to purchase, while others had more. The idea never gained traction within the State due to the costs.

[Noggin]

If it is elevated, it seems to me they might be able to locate it in the existing interstate highway right of way. Not perfect, but no fewer problems than trying to get a separate right of way. I wonder how straight this thing needs to be.

Well that might depend upon whether or not they choose to use "tilting" train technology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilting_train

[The Annoyed Man]

I once rode a TGV train from Paris to Angoulȇme in France, a 453 kilometer (281 miles) trip that took not quite two hours, including a couple of short stops along the way to pick up passengers. At top speed, the train was seriously hauling the mail. I mean, like, faster than I've ever driven a car, and almost as fast as I rode my racebike on a closed course racetrack. When our train passed another one just like it heading the opposite direction, the compressed air between the two trains would drive up cabin pressure inside our train enough to make your ears pop. It was awesome.

It also makes perfect sense in France (and maybe the rest of europe), where people have historically always travelled by train. When a city is 281 miles distant, going to an airport, which will be found outside the city you're in, going through security, waiting to board the plane, flying to your destination, and when you get to that airport, finding transportation into that city, can take longer than just going downtown to the train station and boarding the TGV. You can ride the TGV right into the center of your destination city.

But here in the US, for whatever reason, we've never really developed......or maybe it is more accurate to say that we didn't maintain....the infrastructure to take passenger trains everywhere we go, and flying is faster. Plus, we like our cars.

In any case, I can't look at a bullet train for Texas, and not be reminded of all the corruption involved in California's high speed rail boondoggle that has bilked the taxpayers (state and federal) out of nearly $1 BILLION for a section of rail between Madera and Fresno:

The Perini-Zachary-Parsons bid was the lowest received from the five consortia participating in the bidding process, but “low” is a relative term. The firms bid $985,142,530 to build the wildly anticipated first section of high speed rail track that will tie the megopolis of Madera to the global finance center of Fresno. Do the division, and you find that the low bid came in at a mere $35 million per mile.

And that doesn’t include the cost of rolling stock (that’s engines and cars to the normal among us). Nor does it include the cost of electrifying the route. Does it at least include the cost of land acquisition? No, it does not.

As this fiasco progress, remember that this $35 million per mile represents the best California can do on the section of track the High on Crack Speed Rail Authority selected to go first because it will be the cheapest.

$35 MILLION per mile!!!! When I see stuff like that, it scares me to death that enthusiasm for a Texas bullet train could lead to something like California's experience. I don't trust politicians with that kind of money, for something that has too much potential for being a boondoggle.

[bblhd672]

Privately funded, but by the time government regulations gets through it will be so expensive the average Texan won't be able to afford it. Plus, expect the Transportation Safety Administration to be patting you down just like at airports. After all, a train full of passengers going 200 plus miles per hour isn't something you want a bomber to have easy access to get onto.

[DevilDawg]

DevilDawg,

More info please.

Sure, not sure which side you were asking about, POTUS or the Texas Boondoggle HST.

POTUS Trump has made no bones about his belief in using Eminent Domain to take land for development prior to being elected. He justifies this by saying hypothetically if he used the govt to take land from an individual but built a factory employing 5,000 others there is no harm so long as they were compensated fairly. My problem with this is in who decides what is "Compensated Fairly"? I think we can all agree the government will never work a deal in your favor when it comes to money exchanging hands.

The Texas HST Boondoggle is another huge money pit that will end up being paid for by Texas taxes regardless what the spin doctors tell us. They point to Europe and its mass transit as the reasoning we backwards Americans should be approving this. We are not the Europeans.

Their claim that these proposed routes follow "Mostly" along routes already owned is fine and well. But no firm or govt entity ahould be able to use E/D to force a sale especially when that same said entity is the ones determining the value.

Another item I find improbable is that the Texas tax payers won't be paying for this in the end. We paid for the toll roads in advance, so that we could pay for them forever. The State still gets a cut going into a slush fund and we never see the end of the fees.

They are even using the proverbial "little old lady" in an effort to make land grabs seem "ok".

http://www.texascentral.com/

[Abraham]

DevilDawg,

Thanks!

I was speaking about POTUS's thoughts about this, which is something I had no idea about.

ED is something I have mixed ideas about.

If doing ED is in the grand scheme, something we can all benefit by I can understand.

At the same time, it sounds like communism.

I'd sure as heck, hate it if some goverern-mental entity decided my property, house was disposable for their ideas...

[Wag2323]

From where I live and locally the little I read about the train I believe the term "mostly follow" is there do to with The Woodlands north of Houston. They are very vocal and strongly vote together about their area and it being used as any type of throughway for a train or roads.

[MechAg94]

Question: When someone you know heads to San Antonio, are they heading to San Antonio or somewhere nearby? Given how spread out Houston, San Antonio and Dallas/Ft Worth are, where would the train leave you? Texas' major cities are much more spread out than cities in Europe. Our population density isn't the same.

IMO, the train would have to be elevated for much of the route simply to allow road and wild life crossing. Being elevated would avoid much of the issue of obstacles on the track and minimize eminent domain requirements. That is a whole lot of concrete and construction. I don't see how it would be profitable.