Chad Irby wrote in
om:
In article ,
James Robinson wrote:
Chad Irby wrote:
"patLB" wrote:

On the other hand, you could always visit Spain, and
relax on their nice, safe, high-speed trains. Or the
ones in France.

Still waiting for the high speed trains of USA...

The distances are too long. Air travel is cheaper for that
sort of range,

What gave you that idea. High speed trains are effective in
the range of 200 to 500 miles. There are lots of large cities
within that distance. Just draw a circle around Chicago or
Washington, and see how many cities are enclosed. For that
distance, trains have a lower operating cost and aircraft.
Don't just think of transcontinental service, where aircraft
have the advantage.

But for the 200 to 500 mile range, people over here have *cars*,
which gives them much more flexibility.

Not necessarily. Cars have to be parked somewhere, which
can be very expensive and just finding a place to park
can be a nightmare in a larger city. Let alone a safe place
for your car.

Put that on top of a slow and uncomfortable ride, relative
to a train, and that you are dependent on having a driver
for it as well. And it's easy to get some work done on a
train -- you can't work on your laptop driving a car.

Besides you also need to find your way in and out of a city,
which is often not desirable, and pray you don't get clogged
up in traffic. That will make the trip even slower.

For short to medium haul, city to city, there is nothing
that can beat the modern highspeed train. At least provided
it's well integrated into the overall public transportation
system. Then interrailing becomes a joy.


Any moron with a chunk of steel can knock a train off the
tracks.

... and as we've found out, trains are far too prone to
sabotage.

The terrorists just picked trains for their latest attack.
Trains are no more at risk than any other place where people
congregate.

But for transportation, they're insanely easier to target.

I think trains are still the safest means of transportation.
Besides it's more environmentally safe than anything.



Regards...