01-28-2010, 01:53 PM
Tampa to Orlando, the state already owns the right of way. It is the median of interstate 4. Orlando to Miami, they would need to buy the right of way. A friend of mine read that the cost of regular commuter rail service is such that it would cost less if the government just paid everyone $50,000.00 and let them drive. I'm not sure if that figure takes highway construction costs into consideration. I read or heard something somewhere, it may have been an interview on tv, that the reason why we should forget about high speed rail service in North America for the near term is that in Europe, Japan, and China where they are running high speed trains, they already had established passenger rail service pretty much blanketing the country. Here we don't have the basic service in much of the country, so putting in high speed rail in places other than the North East Corridor, or between Los Angeles and San Diego or the San Francisco Bay area doesn't make a lot of sense.
I can see where Florida makes sense for rail service. They have enough retired people who may no longer be driving to provide potential passengers. The other factor for Florida is that they have no hills or mountains. The landscape has some rolling hills in the North part of the state, but they are very gentle.
They are talking about high speed rail in So Cal between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, but it would seem that Cajon Pass would slow things down quite a bit. Even between Victorville and Las Vegas there is still a big hill east of Baker where the elevation changes from 2000 feet to 4500 feet in about 10 miles and then back down to 2000 feet in the next 10 miles.
I can see where Florida makes sense for rail service. They have enough retired people who may no longer be driving to provide potential passengers. The other factor for Florida is that they have no hills or mountains. The landscape has some rolling hills in the North part of the state, but they are very gentle.
They are talking about high speed rail in So Cal between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, but it would seem that Cajon Pass would slow things down quite a bit. Even between Victorville and Las Vegas there is still a big hill east of Baker where the elevation changes from 2000 feet to 4500 feet in about 10 miles and then back down to 2000 feet in the next 10 miles.