Re: The Latest..... Sounds more realistic than some things...
Author: BOB2
Date: 11-21-2020 - 08:16
Train sure do suck...
There is already a somewhat successful intermediate "high speed" corridor service to Ann Arbor and moderately successful but quite limited service from Chicago to Grand Rapids. Creating the connecting service increase service connections to Grand Rapids, and this connection to the Michigan corridor at Ann Arbor makes a lot of sense, as it would open up many new local City pair connections. The state already owns much of the infrastructure, capable of conventional lower speed passenger services today (60-79 mph.) with about a 3-4 hour potential corridor trip. So, since much of the connecting rail passenger infrastructure is is place, this kind of incremental system service expansion seems both sensible and doable.
I've seen people talk about crazier proposals... And, Florida is happening, with Las Vegas making more real progress to an operating system than the billions that have been pissed away on the CHSRA fiasco (I see on Facebook, that we finally have an actual finished highway overpass in Fresno complete after nearly 10 years....). And, I'll take Virgin's due diligence on LA-LV over the stinking hot mess of incompetence in the Central Valley, making service to Las Vegas much more likely, than the possibility of any likely operational services on the CAHSRA fiasco within the next 6 years....
Of course, if you mostly post on AP, because you really hate trains, and/or feel compelled by the voices coming through your tinfoil hat telling you that you must stop Thomas and his evil cohorts, then this pretty reasonable type of modest incremental rail passenger network expansion probably would suck.
This is not as far fetched as southern Montana, which has none of these attributes...