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So, how would you P.E. types improve the all-weather capability of passenger rail, particularly HSR? Seems to me that there is an inherent advantage here over airline, but the recent unpleasantness in RI and elsewhere earlier this winter, tells me there is room for improvement. But where? How?

Really, what's the big deal? http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1483565.shtml?cat=504

Heard a rush hour ad on my local clear channel am station this afternoon for Siemens. Basically the ad said "We make HSR. We can make one for you too, right here in America." I live nowhere near a corridor and the radio show was purely local, so it wasn't a network feed. I guess its worth a...

I've taken to googling high speed rail from time to time to read about local proposals. It seems to me that there is wide regional variation in interest. It doesn't have much to do with the practicalities of the proposed systems for their areas. As a straw-man, here is where I perceive us to...

http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/06/14/political-engineers/

Why is something so popular in deployment so villified in the planning stage? Today's paper had a news article that the mayor of Albuquerque is being targeted with robocalls because of his support for a light rail system. Light rail is a huge hit in Dallas and Phoenix, neither of which is very...

Has there been any indication of the committment to HSR beyond the initial $8 bil? I noticed that the tax plan of president Obama contemplates converting various airport taxes to user fees. In effect, this means actually using the various airport surcharges for actual airport improvements--how...

Its becoming apparent that the new HSR lines won't be run by Amtrak. CEO of Amtrak made a speech last weekend dissing "true" HSR in favor upgraded conventional rail. Yet, administration officials are still speaking firmly of 220 MPH systems. I surmise from this that the plan is still to have...

Phoenix is planning on extending the highly successful light rail system to its downtown airport--at a cost of 1.1 Billion $. Its just a few miles, too. As I mentioned, its a downtown airport. $1.1 bil would probably pay for one of those semi-fast 110 mph diesel electric lines to Tucson 100...

This rail thing is taking off. Even the Arizonans included a $3.5 million earmark in the federal budget to study a link between Phoenix and Tucson. As many on this forum have pointed out, there is a real need for conventional commuter rail, say for distances to 125 miles. So, leaving aside...

I noticed a couple of news articles that are pointing to an additional $5 billion grant program to the states for rail in the budget. Apparently this is in addition to the $8 bil High Speed Rail initiative. Does anyone know what this is about? I'm thinking maybe this is all the "intermediate"...

With all the hoo-hah about the $8 bil for high speed rail, I was wondering, what is the least successful of the TGV type train routes and why? surely after 25 years there's a clinker or two in there. By the way, Wall Street Journal on line had a good article today about the initiative that...

The New Mexico Railrunner is meant to be a commuter rail line from Albuquerque, to the state capitol city of Santa Fe, sixty miles to the North. They don't bother to run the train on Sundays, so tourists are out of luck if they want to go home on a Sunday. Van service may readily be arranged...

When I read that ARC project to build a new rail tunnel under the Hudson from New Jersey to Macy's was going to get $3 billion in federal money, I checked it out. The need for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson after 100 years seems fairly obvious. But why will it take until 2017 from...

New Mexico Railrunner from Duke City to Santa Fe will start in a week. First three MONTHS will be free with state driver's license. Don't these people know that this will turn the train into a homeless shelter on wheels? Its cold up here! Besides there needs to be at least a little price...

When is a spreader or some other kind of snow fighting equipment necessary? The reason I ask is that at an open house for the New Mexico Railrunner, a representative of the line when I asked, kind of vaguely told me that they didn't need any snow plows because the trains could just kind of...