

300-mph train would whisk travelers from Vegas to Disneyland - edw519
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2008-02-25-vegas-disneyland-train_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

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edw519
This sounds like the perfect application for a technology that really needs a
pilot project here in the U.S.

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TheTarquin
I completely agree. The common wisdom is that modern passenger rail would fail
in America. Really, I think that it can be a huge success, but only in local
links.

Recent discussion in my area (Eastern Washington state) has broached the idea
of a fast light rail service among the Spokane/Coeur D'alene area (tech center
of E. Wa.) down to the Tri-Cities (which have a DoE National Lab and the
Hanford Nuclear site) and the Moscow/Pullman access which has two big state
universities (WSU and UI). Those kinds of local links can work and be a great
thing for economic and intellectual interchange, I think. Trans-continental
railways probably aren't the best solution for cross-country travel anymore,
but locally I think they're the way to go.

Just look at the UK: light rail is a huge boon for commuters going to and from
the London orbital.

Then again, IANARE (I Am Not A Railroad Engineer).

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rms
What ever happened to the maglev train that east coast cities were competing
for? Did the funding for that fall through after they spent years talking
about it?

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manvsmachine
I'm pretty sure that it fell through... Not sure why, even something like the
slower 125 mph option would be perfect for the Tri-State area.

The only thing I don't get is their choices in starting locations: I guess
Anaheim isn't that bad, but by having people drive an hour and a half to
Victorville to take a high-speed train, they only gain an hour, two max. I'd
think that they'd want the system to at least have the potential of being
expandable; if the line started out of LA, they could eventually have it as a
hub serving San Diego / the Bay.

