Thursday, February 14, 2008

High-Speed Rail. What Do You Think?




I don't know about you but in concept, I like it. Traffic between DFW and the "lower 48" is becoming more than just annoying. It's getting dangerous, and if the danger materializes in front of you, forget it.
Austin, San Antonio and Houston would all benefit from a closer commute to us and we from being "closer" to them. DFW Airport would benefit. Southwest Airlines must be lobbying hard against it. One suggestion: have at least one car dedicated to forklift loadable cargo. I have driven from DFW to Houston and San Antonio in the evening and it is 75% FedEx, UPS and other freight company trucks.

I also like the private company investment side of it. If a financier is willing to speculate about the future as far ahead as 2020, have at it. If it pays off big for him, he deserves it.

Downsides:
  • It is speculative, so if Texas stops growing at the current rates we could have a lot of hat and no cattle. But the chances of that are small, there seems to be no stopping the movement to the southern states (or northern if below the border).
  • Security concerns me with high speed rail, but the French, Germans and Japanese are dealing with it.
  • I'd hate to see them go hog-wild enforcing eminent domain laws.
Purely personal interest: I would love to take a 1.5 hour train to San Antonio. Leave Saturday morning, come back Saturday night.

I'm just starting to hear and read about this, if you know of any definite dates and plans please let me know.

1 comment:

Andrew said...

I wish they could put it in before 2020! By that time I won't need it as much as I do now!

It is a great idea, though, and will I think greatly increase tourism throughout Texas cities because travellers won't feels so isolated in one city but will be able to hop to any of the major cities in a very short time.