3 replies to this topic

[KevinKorell]

Excuse me, does anyone here have $4.9 billion they can loan to X-Train to get HALF a rail line started? There is not other description i can think of other than this idea is half-a$$ed. Sorry, it's got to run all the way to Los Angeles, or at least much closer. As long as L.A. Union Station is going to support California's own high speed rail network, why can't this line come in there as well? Or will this line join the CA HSR along the way and use its tracks to get into Los Angeles? From MSNBC, 3/25/12:

VICTORVILLE, Calif. — On a dusty, rock-strewn expanse at the edge of the Mojave Desert, a company linked to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to build a bullet train that would rocket tourists from the middle of nowhere to the gambling palaces of Las Vegas.

Story is here.

"It's insanity," says Thomas Finkbiner of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver. "People won't drive to a train to go someplace. If you are going to drive, why not drive all the way and leave when you want?"

Good point, but there is precedent that refutes the statement. Many people drive every day to take the Auto Train, and they drive even more after they get off the Auto Train.

That brings to mind, how about an Auto Train type operation on this line? Since it's a day trip of a few hours, they would not necessarily need sleepers. Though if they did run a longer trip out of Los Angeles, an overnight trip might be possible as well.

[AlanB]

"It's insanity," says Thomas Finkbiner of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver. "People won't drive to a train to go someplace. If you are going to drive, why not drive all the way and leave when you want?"

Good point, but there is precedent that refutes the statement. Many people drive every day to take the Auto Train, and they drive even more after they get off the Auto Train.

While that is true Kevin, the difference is that there is a motivation to making that drive; namely the fact that your car remains with you on the train and that you then have the use of your car at the other end of the trip. That motivating factor would not exist in this case, unless they followed up with your thoughts below.

That brings to mind, how about an Auto Train type operation on this line? Since it's a day trip of a few hours, they would not necessarily need sleepers. Though if they did run a longer trip out of Los Angeles, an overnight trip might be possible as well.

[steve4031]

The ca hsr plans that I saw somewhere includes a link to the las Vegas train.

[KevinKorell]

The ca hsr plans that I saw somewhere includes a link to the las Vegas train.

And yes that makes more sense to me. But if the Las Vegas portion is built first, as it looks like will happen, it will be a train to nowhere for a while. But politicians fail to see the bigger picture, that the line in question is only a segment of an eventual much larger network.