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Re: "There are already plenty of flights..." Geography is not your friend here...
Author: BOB2
Date: 06-18-2020 - 17:21
You can only build cost effective choo-choo in a corridor where you have demand and market "benefits", and low enough costs, relative to that demand, to justify building it. There is considerable attraction of trips between Tucson/Phoenix metro areas and LV Metro area. There is considerable auto travel via indirect routes(via 95 Havasu, or up and across I-40.
This "interstate" route has taken so long, because it is unbelievably difficult direct terrain, especially to stay on any kind of direct "straight line" routing. Which is why the only way across there now is four wheeled, slow, indirect, downright dangerous (we turned back when it got really hairy...), because I've done part of it with a friend from Havasu. And, that would be a very expensive place, based my experience doing cost benefit analysis of some pretty massive freeway projects, to put any interstate quality high speed highway through.
Many of the 95 improvements going on in Nevada and Arizona, are overdue to the growth in demand from nearby growth in places like Havasu and Laughlin, and they've been making improvements to the route on both sides of the River for that.
The ATSF runs the way it does to Phoenix, because that is one of the few routes through this awful "anti road and rail" physical "geography".
Any rail line, fixed guideway, or "hyperloop", or any other super "high speed" "fantasy" system between LV and PHX would make the CAHSRA fiasco look cheap (at least until we've spent the $25 or $30 billion on Pacheco???) without anything near the demand necessary to support such a costly line, and lower cost competitive air services, without that massive capital cost and high O&M costs.
If you believe the Eureka East West nonsense, you should definitely buy stock in a hyperloop between LV and PHX.... Meanwhile I'm gonna stick with "doable" projects like Virgin's LA-LV line, which does not require one to have to "believe" in business case "miracles", "fantasy" technologies, or sufficient numbers of "gullible" Arizona or Nevada voters to foot the bill these fantasies...
This "interstate" route has taken so long, because it is unbelievably difficult direct terrain, especially to stay on any kind of direct "straight line" routing. Which is why the only way across there now is four wheeled, slow, indirect, downright dangerous (we turned back when it got really hairy...), because I've done part of it with a friend from Havasu. And, that would be a very expensive place, based my experience doing cost benefit analysis of some pretty massive freeway projects, to put any interstate quality high speed highway through.
Many of the 95 improvements going on in Nevada and Arizona, are overdue to the growth in demand from nearby growth in places like Havasu and Laughlin, and they've been making improvements to the route on both sides of the River for that.
The ATSF runs the way it does to Phoenix, because that is one of the few routes through this awful "anti road and rail" physical "geography".
Any rail line, fixed guideway, or "hyperloop", or any other super "high speed" "fantasy" system between LV and PHX would make the CAHSRA fiasco look cheap (at least until we've spent the $25 or $30 billion on Pacheco???) without anything near the demand necessary to support such a costly line, and lower cost competitive air services, without that massive capital cost and high O&M costs.
If you believe the Eureka East West nonsense, you should definitely buy stock in a hyperloop between LV and PHX.... Meanwhile I'm gonna stick with "doable" projects like Virgin's LA-LV line, which does not require one to have to "believe" in business case "miracles", "fantasy" technologies, or sufficient numbers of "gullible" Arizona or Nevada voters to foot the bill these fantasies...
