Say what you want bad about France but if SNCF sez the TGV to Lyon departs Paris Gare de Lyon at 10:51 you better damned well be inside the door at 10:50 because that MoFo is pulling out at 10:51 and they don't GAS if you're on it or not. Admirable.

Not so admirable is advertising the line from Montpellier to Carcassone as TGV...well, you do ride in a TGV trainset but at regular track speed. Once you leave Montpellier it is high speed business as usual. From a passenger and logistics standpoint it makes sense but being an outsider it isn't clear that the line is in actuality, regular rail service.

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Acela is pretty cool, whistles along at a fair clip and is capable of much more. The real estate to fix that limitation isn't going to come cheap.

FWIW, the USA isn't a good candidate for nationwide high-speed rail...too much ground to cover. At speeds between 150-200mph, the advantage is lost if you need to travel more than 300-400 miles. That's where aircraft come into their own.

However, there are plenty of corridors besides the NE that would benefit from 150+ mph rail service.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

I'd say more like 600 miles is the break even point. 600 miles = 4 hr by train at 150 mph.

By plane, it's a 2 hr flight, including takeoff, landing, taxiing, and boarding. Add another hour for security/bag check/BS and another hour of travel to airports (which are often far from populated areas), and you have 4 hr. Trains can also stop at smaller cities along the way more easily than planes, making access faster.

I say 300-400 because if there's 600 mi between city centers you can't do 150 for the entire duration. For example the TGV runs regular rail from the various stations out to the dedicated TGV railway. I'd say that there's at least 20 miles of slow running from Gare de Lyon to the TGV railway. Takes a good half hour to 45min to run that distance. I don't have a feel for what the distance is at the other stops.

Of course, on the train you are generally closer to town than an airport.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Without government subsidies, Amtrack would be WAY under water. People think oil companies get Fed money (they don't, and the Fed earns more profit per gallon than oil companies due - at no risk), how hard would they howl if the pumped up a train system? Lots of eminent domain issues and right of ways to be had.

No Euro country could afford to build their system if they had to do it today.

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MB-less

Yet it's OK to take land for gov't financed freeways. Thx for the laugh.

You should acquaint yourself with the concept and particulars of "Eminent Domain" the "The right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation".

Just the cost of acquiring right-of-ways would be astronomical, then building and operating costs would dwarf the acquisition costs! It would be less expensive to pay all the Euro-Wannabes to emmigrate to the country of their favorite train system than to build what they want here.

Hey, you're back!

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

Like a wooden nickel. Here one day and poof ... gone the next.

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