NY Times take on HSR

[JNaismith]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/07/us/delays-persist-for-us-high-speed-rail.html

 

[beautifulplanet]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/07/us/delays-persist-for-us-high-speed-rail.html

Some may think that this New York Times article contains a lot of factually incorrect information, and might be surprised it got published in the first place despite all the factually incorrect information.

One can read some comments about this New York Times article in a blog post by Robert Cruickshank on the California High Speed Rail Blog:

http://www.cahsrblog.com/2014/08/new-york-times-asks-wrong-people-why-hsr-is-struggling/

What might be surprising to many: there is a press report in Italian about the alleged failures of the Obama administration regarding US High Speed Rail, based on the New York Times article (without even mentioning the New York Times article once, though clearly reproducing some of its content):

http://america24.com/news/usa-la-polemica-corre-sull-alta-velocita

Possibly not such a big surprise to some may be, that the Italian article even added more factual mistakes to the New York Times article, f.e. it says that Ray LaHood is Obama's secretary of transportation (despite Anthony Foxx being in office for more than a year already) and that Acela's top speed is 150kmh (approx. 93mph) when it's actually 150mph, and that Acela's average speed is 80kmh (approx. 50mph) when it's actually 80mph...

 

[NW cannonball]

Maybe we should call the USA version of HSR "HSR" - for "Higher Speed Rail" - not Shinkansen-speed, not TGV-speed - not MAGLEV-speed -- just faster enough to help a lot of people get where they want to be significantly faster - without having to drive . Driving interferes with texting -- drivng loses.

All that about population density and relative costs still holds, and is obvious.

BUT -- either I text while I drive --> die.

OR - I ride some bus or something, and can work the whole trip.