Florida High Speed rail

[Fluesheet]

Fluesheet is right however, it would be money better spent to build light rail lines from where people live to where they work, than to spend all of the extra money for high speed rail. I think much of the North East is ripe for a system patterned after the interurban lines that used to exist prior to WW2.

Actually, I was proposing something a little more out of the box than building to where people live. To some degree, I don't think it's possible, especially in the short term (10-20 years) to build lines into existing sprawling suburbs. I've got co-workers, friends and relatives that live in one low density subdivision after the other, and they state, rightly, that they don't think rail is worth it because no one lives near rail and prefer their current lifestyle. These same friends, etc., are also not in the least interested in having a railroad built into their car-centric neighborhoods for expense, safety, NIMBY or other reasons.

There are, however, people of all stripes that would ride rail - for environmental, convenience, economic or even romantic reasons.

My proposal, after reading Russ's post, is similar to the interurban lines he described, with a twist. The proposal would be to build (or re-develop) rail where people aren't! Old rights of way in Ohio pass through small town after small town (small meaning less than 10 intersections). My supposition is that the people mentioned above would be attracted to those locations precisely because they are near rail (the opposite of my suburb and exurb friends). This mindset would lend itself to denser development - to stay close to the station - that is walkable so you don't HAVE to get in the car to go to the grocery, bank, postoffice, etc.

Change this fundamental would take decades to be accepted. Forcing it on people would be a mistake. This strategy would allow those who are used to a car-based lifestyle to continue in that manner, while those who are interested in using the car less would have that option - allowing larger change to occur over time.

But as noted in my previous post, no one would vote to fund a rail line that doesn't go anywhere important, and if it goes somewhere important, no one will vote for it because they don't want it in their backyard. I'll make you a deal - I'll vote to maintain your roads if you vote for my rails!

The one thing that got me, a fairly conservative individual, thinking about this is looking at google maps and seeing all these unused rights of way. The work that went into those is WELL amortized - I like the idea of recycling 100 year old labor!