On 9/3/13 9:48 AM, iBoaterer wrote:
In article ,
says...

On 9/3/2013 7:51 AM, Hank© wrote:
On 9/2/2013 11:24 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 02 Sep 2013 14:42:08 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

I'll betcha if a national poll was taken the majority of people would
prefer spending money on fixing roads and airports in lieu of
building a
rail system network and trains capable of travelling 200+ mph.

The power grid isn't as big of a problem as you may think. Demand has
basically flat lined in the past several years and has actually dropped
in some. Smart grids and energy efficient devices have helped.



Not to worry. Nothing much is happening in refurbishing roads,
bridges, dams, infrastructure.

That must be a North East problem. Florida maintains it's roads
..

BTW who was talking about dams?
The environmentalists want all of them blown up anyway

Roads don't freeze in Florida. Northerners haven't figured out how to
build roads to survive the harsh winters they experience.

The "infrastructure" is not crumbling... I drive all over the place with
a trailer. The roads are fine... the bridges are fine....

Please do tell us, then, about the structural state of bridges that were
never designed for the loads and frequency of travel that they now get.
Of course, you'd much rather make your own idiotic conclusions than get
real data.....

http://t4america.org/resources/bridges/

And here's a GREAT site to ponder:

http://www.infrastructurereportcard....rade-sheet/gpa


Aviaton that Greg says is just great!

http://www.infrastructurereportcard....ation/overview


A fairly substantial bridge carrying I-95 over a river in Greenwich
collapsed about three decades ago. There was another bridge collapse in
Minnesota and, of course, the Silver Bridge collapse in West Virginia.
And many, many others.

In article ,
says...

On 9/3/2013 7:56 AM, Hank© wrote:
On 9/3/2013 12:33 AM, wrote:
On Mon, 02 Sep 2013 21:05:10 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Mon, 02 Sep 2013 18:16:12 -0400, wrote:

The problem is a lot of those right of ways have been ceded over to
the power companies for power lines and the Internet. That is where a
good chunk of the national fiber backbone is installed. Nobody wants
you digging roadbeds around that.
The existing ROW is being used for freight. They don't want that on HS
rail.

===

Don't forget about the interstate highway system, especially the air
rights over the medians, or the air rights over the freight lines.

You still run into that "last 20 (or 40) mile" problem in each city
you get close to.
They may not have a suitable interstate going into the city and that
real estate tends to be curb to curb traffic lane.

Elevating a high speed train? That is just funny.
Cost, additional danger in a derailment, more noise.

I do like your sense of humor tho.

All it would take is a train popping off a track and taking out a
whole row of bumper to bumper commuters in cars on that interstate
below to sink rail in this country for years.


I wonder why the monorail concept never took off?

Because, Americans can't live with set tracks for routes...

No, it's mostly a stigma, people think elevated trains, they think
noise, they think unsafe, etc. Add to that that for some reason beyond
me, there are a LOT of people in the U.S. who just fear and loathe any
new technology.

In article ,
says...

On 9/3/2013 6:18 AM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Tue, 03 Sep 2013 00:20:57 -0400, wrote:

My day to day travel is about a tank of gas a month and 90% of it
could be in my golf cart if they would let me use it on the FPL
R.O.W.

===

You bring up an interesting question there. I've been tempted to
go
"off road" a few times under some of the power lines around here
(LCEC
I assume). Is it illegal and/or enforced?


----------------------------------

I don't know about Florida. In MA, is used to be fun riding under
the powerlines on dirt bikes and sometimes 4 wheel drives and
authorities looked the other way. That all ended many years ago.
Now it's trespassing and enforced if they can catch you. Heck, the
conservationist routinely shut down the beach in our town due to
"piping plovers" .... some kind of protected bird species.

I know that in PA, there was a gas pipeline that they kept the right of
way cleared on, you could access it on farmer's land and go where ever
it went to next, with snowmobiles or dirt bikes. Trouble is, some of it
went up over VERY steep hills, which was fun to see who could and could
not make it up and over!

On Tue, 03 Sep 2013 09:26:21 -0400, Hank©
wrote:

You didn't go far enough up into NY to see the serious infrastructure
rust and decay.

===

We got as far as Watertown, Syracuse, Binghamton and the Finger Lakes
region. How much farther did we need to go?

On 9/3/2013 9:26 AM, Hank© wrote:
On 9/3/2013 9:10 AM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Tue, 03 Sep 2013 08:57:34 -0400, JustWaitAFrekinMinute
wrote:

Roads don't freeze in Florida. Northerners haven't figured out how to
build roads to survive the harsh winters they experience.

The "infrastructure" is not crumbling... I drive all over the place with
a trailer. The roads are fine... the bridges are fine....

===

I agree for the most part. We just got back from a road trip to the
north east and there were no issues in the NY/NJ/CT area other than
the usual heavy traffic. Some of the overpasses on the New York
State Thruway show some signs of rust and corrosion however. There's
no excuse for that since it is a highly profitable toll road but NY
has a good track record for fixing things like that.

Parts of I-81 through Virginia could use some road work and widening.
The truck traffic on the long two lane stretches is slow but part of
that is the fault of the truckers who insist on racing each other
uphill at 45 mph.

Thanks for the road conditions report.

You didn't go far enough up into NY to see the serious infrastructure
rust and decay. Some parts of NY seem to be stuck in the 50s/60s, but
that doesn't stop them from collecting serious tolls, rivaling Illinois.






Sure, CT to Long Island can be tough, if you don't plan your trip around
easy traffic times.... If you are talking "Down Town", that is not
really what I would consider, "infrastructure" in the sense that we are
talking here like highways, and bridges...

On Tue, 03 Sep 2013 09:53:38 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

A fairly substantial bridge carrying I-95 over a river in Greenwich
collapsed about three decades ago.

===

I was over that bridge about an hour before it went down, couldn't
believe my ears when I heard the news in the morning.

That bridge failed more from engineering/design issues than it did
from deterioration. It was only about 30 years old at the time.

On Tue, 03 Sep 2013 09:33:38 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

Why discourage W'hine from partaking of dangerous activities? Perhaps
he'll hit a high voltage power apparatus.

===

Shouldn't you be out trying to repay your creditors and taxes?

On Tue, 3 Sep 2013 09:57:25 -0400, iBoaterer wrote:

there are a LOT of people in the U.S. who just fear and loathe any
new technology.

===

I think that's more a recent political phenomenon, largely inspired by
the Rush Limbaughs of the world. There was a time, not too far in
the past, when most people took pride in seeing new technology
developed. They need to see the advantages for themselves however
instead of being told they must adopt it.

On Tue, 3 Sep 2013 07:39:51 -0400, iBoaterer wrote:

In article ,
says...

On Mon, 02 Sep 2013 21:41:57 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:


When we take the train to Jax, it usually works out to be a 13 hour
train trip. We leave in the evening and arrive the next morining, after
a good night's sleep aboard the train. No long waits to clear security
at the origin, no long wait for luggage at the termination. Compartment
includes private toilet, two bunk beds and two pretty decent meals.
Takes about the same time as driving, if I felt like driving without an
overnight stop, which I don't like doing. Would take much less time if
trackage and equipment were a lot better, but the trackage south of DC
is mostly CSX, and it doesn't give a **** about high speed passenger rail.

No worries about all the crap that accompanies airline travel.

That "crap" is coming TSA is already eyeing trains as the next place
to expand their empire. All it would take is one "terrorist gesture"
to lock the train stations down as tight as an airport.


About $700 round trip for two adults. Much more comfy than even first
class on a plane. Takes longer, sure, but it's overnight and you have to
sleep. Oh, and two first class airline tickets would be about $1000.

But we can't improve passenger rail transportation because this is
America and we can't things like that anymore. I get it.

It is something most people do not want.
It is simple, just put it to a vote.
In Florida High Speed Rail went down about two to one in the 2004
vote.

Kill the bullet train

Yes 4,519,423 63.72%
No 2,573,280 36.28%

Bunch of old retirees that are afraid of change!

Cite? :)

John (Gun Nut) H.
--

Hope you're having a great day!

On Mon, 02 Sep 2013 14:42:08 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

On 9/2/13 2:38 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:


"F.O.A.D." wrote in message
...

On 9/2/13 1:22 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:


"F.O.A.D." wrote in message
m...

On 9/2/13 10:27 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:


"F.O.A.D." wrote in message
...

...can't compete with this:

Japan Railway Comp. (JR Tokai) (TYO:9022) (aka. "The Central Japan
Railway Comp.) is responsible for ferrying close to 400,000 passengers
a day between some of the largest cities in central Japan. While its
fastest bullet trains can cut the transit time from Tokyo to Osaka from
about 6 hours by car to about 2 hours and 20 minutes by bullet train, JR
Tokai is dreaming of a next generation maglev system that could go even
faster, completing the 500+ kilometer (310+ mile) journey in under an
hour.



When you don't waste your money on the military, you can have nice
things.

--------------------------------

Funds have been approved to develop high speed rail corridors in the US
however the Department of Transportation is still working on the safety
standards that will apply. Right now, the "crash worthiness" spec for
the trains is more than double (in terms of forces than can be
withstood without frame deformation) than the standards used in Europe
and Japan's high speed rail systems, i.e. almost 900,000 lbs versus
350,000 lbs.

The cost of designing and manufacturing such trains is a major
impediment, as is the cost of the rail system itself. Right now there
are Amtrak trains between Boston and Wash DC capable of doing over 200
mph however there are very limited stretches of track that would allow
speeds of even 150 mph. Plus, even if they could run at high speed,
they would never be able to sustain the speed very long without having
to stop at stations along the way. Not enough passenger usage for "non
stop" tracks.



Yeah, I've heard and read every excuse here for at least the last 20
years. The fact remains that in the operation of high speed trains,
we're still in the caboose.

-------------------------------

We've also had viable options like a network of airports, airlines and a
love affair with cars.
We are not Europe or Japan and don't necessarily need to emulate them
just because it works for them.



Most of our airports are obsolete and our interstate highway system is
crumbling, along with our power grid.

------------------------------

I'll betcha if a national poll was taken the majority of people would
prefer spending money on fixing roads and airports in lieu of building a
rail system network and trains capable of travelling 200+ mph.

The power grid isn't as big of a problem as you may think. Demand has
basically flat lined in the past several years and has actually dropped
in some. Smart grids and energy efficient devices have helped.



Not to worry. Nothing much is happening in refurbishing roads,
bridges, dams, infrastructure.

Been on I-95 lately?

John (Gun Nut) H.
--

Hope you're having a great day!