|
I guess I have a unique perspective, considering that I'm most likely someone who would be considered in the target market - the hub-based business traveler.
I'm for it - up to a point. I would use it - up to a point.
Chicago is unique in the country but not in a good way. Rail traffic here is incredibly fucked up. There is a giant bottleneck of tracks here and most goods coming from the East to the West or back again go through here. Almost all of it is freight. Once a freight train (or long distance passenger train) enters a radius of about 100 miles from Chicago, it takes about 5 days to get out the other side. THAT'S how bad things are.
If we're going to do this, the high-speed rail HAS to have dedicated tracks - no other trains moving on it except in an emergency. More importantly, Amtrack (or whoever is going to run these trains) has to own those tracks. Currently, Amtrack leases space on all rails and owns virtually none of them. The freight companies that own the rails have to, by law, lease space to Amtrack, but they get the lowest priority and usually have to wait for freight to move first. That typically adds days (not hours) to a cross-country trip going through here.
Honestly, St. Louis and Detroit are places that I go to fairly regularly, and I'd be very inclined to try high-speed rail. The flight times are relatively short for both - about 50 minutes each - but the associated hassles would probably make me change my mind. They're saying that Detroit and St. Louis would each be about 3 hours away by rail (Detroit a little less, St. Louis a little more), which translates into about an extra half hour for me once you factor in the extra drive time to O'Hare from my place, having to be at the airport an hour before my flight, the waiting on the tarmac before and after the actual flight and then waiting for the cattle in front of me to get their damn bags out of the overhead and remember that walking is alternating the left and right foot and no other combination. Add in the fact that I can make calls and send emails during the trip, possibly while having my phone and/or laptop plugged in, and it seems like a very good option.
A flight longer than about an hour doesn't make sense, though. If I went to Milwaukee frequently (I don't), that would be an even better option since the proposed train time would be much faster than driving.
__________________
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo
|