12-15-2008, 05:09 PM
the_poochies wrote:
The Northeast Corridor rail line between Boston & Washington was originally built in the 1830s. Past my house in NJ, it was elevated in 1914 and electrified as part of a New Deal project in 1935. Other than new locomotives and rail cars (most of which are nearly 40 years old, BTW), no major capital upgrades have been made to this line.
Someone should build a high-speed rail corridor between NYC and Washington. Europe and Asia have bullet trains...we get Amtrak and horrific airport delays out of NYC at the slightest hint of bad weather.
A high speed passenger rail network around the country, starting with the east cost corridor that pooch mentioned with another priority being the west coast corridor paralleling Interstate 5. We desperately need dedicated passenger rail lines. Rail travel is the most efficient form of transportation, given the coefficient of friction of steel on steel and the slipstreaming - far better than jetliners and cars. The system now makes passenger trains give up the right of way to freight which makes it impossible for them to keep to a schedule. We also need to put some substantial effort towards improving the existing freight lines, which have degraded over the years and been largely ignored.