Alternative Proposal to High-Speed Rail

The U.S. already moves a high percentage of freight by rail. The freight that doesn’t go by rail is the same kind of freight that probably wouldn’t go by airship - stuff that has to be there overnight, freight between smaller centers, freight between centers that are close enough that load-unload times onto secondary transport like rail or air becomes too expensive, etc.

In 2000, the U.S. moved 38% of its freight by rail. Europe only moved 8 percent of its freight by rail. That’s something to consider when talking about Europe’s ‘advanced’ rail system, and wanting to emulate it in the U.S. Passenger rail came at the expense of freight. Some of the difference can be attributed to local factors like geography, but not all, because Europe used to ship more of its freight by rail, but it declined as more emphasis was given to passenger rail.

If the U.S. winds up sacrificing freight for new HSR links (and it seems it would, as Obama wants to run the trains on rail that’s currently used for freight), then it’s quite possible that the overall efficiency of the transportation system could go down, and greenhouse gas emissions due to overall transportation needs could go up.

Cite.

I agree and disagree. I know many companies are even now trying to use more rail, because they can often get more reliable service at a cheaper total cost. There’s lots more they’d like to ship, but freight services can’t currently move it all at a reasonable cost. We could considerably improve our freight movements by rail compared to other services if we pushed for it.

So it seems that in the not too distant future the U.S. is going to cease to exist as a functioning first world country when inexpensive oil based fuels are no longer the reality.

All these posters telling us how they simply couldn’t live,how they couldn’t even exist without their own personal cars and airtravel for relatively minor purposes.
And how there can be no alternatives.
For while it is unlikely that fossil fuels will actually run out in our grandchildrens lifetimes let alone our own, those reserves that will be available will be a lot more difficult and a lot.lot more expensive to extract.

So whatever the wishful thinking of some your life style of today will be changing sooner then you think.

A pity, but one day I will be able to tell unbelieving children about how America used to be the greatest power on Earth but it all collapsed when everyone were no longer able to drive a hundred yards down the road to post a letter.

Ah we pay homage to the vanished Great Ones.