Posted on 03/04/2013 2:59:36 PM PST by MeganC
Whether a high-speed rail system ever gets built in the United States is still up in the air, but if it is, artist and activist Alfred Twu has figured out exactly where those speedy rail lines should go.
Twu started working on this map in 2009, when President Obama's plan to build high-speed rail was unveiled. "There were many such maps being made by various designers," says Twu, but since then he's updated the map with labels and put it on Facebook, and it struck a chord. It's gone viral.
"With the huge response it's generated, I created a petition to the White House to fund such a system," he told Mashable. After just a week, that White House petition already has 27,528 signatures.
Twu's not just guessing where those routes should be, either. "The routes are based on various studies by government agencies and advocacy groups," he explains.
We like the map's colors and its overall design, into which Twu put a lot of thought. "Some artistic license was applied to make it more elegant and have it be a series of distinct lines like a subway map," he says. "Colors were selected to convey the idea of the U.S. being made up of several interwoven regional cultures that come together at major cities — like an internal melting pot."
Trains zipping across the continent at 220mph might sound like a far-fetched futuristic concept, but Twu thinks this project could be built out much like the Interstate Highway System was built in the 50s, he says. "I've seen 2030 and 2050 as potential dates from various advocacy groups," Twu added.
As you look at the map, you'll see that Twu included unshaded routes, which he says were "purposely left open to interpretation." He says the general idea of adding those routes would be that they would handle "lower-speed trains, as well as potential future high-speed routes."
But certainly there's not enough money to do something like this, given the economic situation in the United States at the moment, right? Tsu says cost estimates for a high-speed rail system like this range from $1-$2 trillion. Geez, that's a lot of money. He responded, "Sounds like a lot, but divided over four decades, that is around $25-$50 billion a year or 80-160 dollars a year per person. That's one tank's worth of gas money."
To get a closer look at the map, view or download this .PDF file.
What do you think, readers? Will this speedy rail system be going near your house? Should the United States catch up with the rest of the developed world and build the system, or should budget constraints keep us from spending money on this futuristic conveyance?
The idea of building the system as a kind of Interstate System for the 21st Century is idealistic at best. As is being seen in California the best that can be hoped for is limited HSR service in congested urban areas like Los Angeles. In the San Francisco Bay Area the HSR plan is doomed to die a death by a thousand cuts via lawsuits and other forms of NIMBY-ism.
Oddly, a bad economy is going to be the best thing to prevent this from ever being built.
Moronic! Pure libtard lunacy!
You may laugh at this but hybrid airplane and lighter than air ships are more practical and likely.
I don’t want a high speed rail, though. I want an 1800s kind of train with buffalo hunting from the windows encouraged.
Yes that makes him uniquely qualified in this venture...
Lol.
It’s bad form to post an article about a picture then not post the picture. How hard is it?
Directly into union coffers for laundering then return to dem pol's.
We saw this fantasy map already, I think.
There were efforts by the private railroads to increase the speeds of intercity trains back in the 50s and early 60s, all of which were crushed by increasing governmental regulation imposed by liberal politicians in DC—who now claim to be champions of high-speed passenger rail, at ten to twenty times the price.
These are the same artist conceptions that, when created in 1967, showed how we all would be vacationing on the moon right now.
Of course these will be operated by thousands of highly compensated Amtrak employed Teamster represented Democrat supporting employees.
19th Century Technology. Next they will suggest horse-drawn carriages.
Just think if we had NOT gotten into all the wars AFTER
WW2, “Korea, Vietnam, Iraq 1, Iraq 2, Afghanistan, Pakistan”
how many hi-speed trains we would have AND ZERO killed
from the armed services. Another point. Increase the gauge
of the HS rail 12 to 188 inches.
Let’s see: LA to NY by air $200 and 6 hours. by “high speed” train (not including the $2 trillion subsidy) $800 and 2 days. Including subsidy and something like current riders (30 million), that would be $68,800 and 2 days. Looks like a trillion dollars STILL is a huge amount of money.
12 to 188 inches===NOT QUITE. That is one foot to almost
17 feet.. that should read 12 to 18 inches
So would you also like to endorse the concept of Buffalo Commons, an idea proposed by Rutgers geographer Frank Popper for depopulating most of the Great Plains to let it go back to nature? LOL!!! I know your post was in jest about HSR in general but the buffalo reference reminded me about Popper’s idea.
Modern Freight Trains also remains a very economical solution to moving very large volumes of goods.
However "light rail" or whatever the hell they keep pushing on us is nothing but a government slush fund program.
If the Free Market Demands them, they will be built.
Otherwise, we will always have our train sets.
I think I figured it out. The reason these insane LIBs’ brains don’t explode is that they don’t have any brains. This Twu subhuman is obviously mentally disturbed. His ideas aren’t ideas...they are disjointed ramblings of a pathetically unstable moron.
What does this sentence mean in English : "petition to the White House to fund such a system"?
it would be like China’s ghost cities.. you know, the ones Obama, Biden and the democrats are all envious of and want to replicate here.
“I want an 1800s kind of train with buffalo hunting from the windows encouraged.”
Come on up to Cody and we’ll show you how that works from a pickup truck!
Thanks. I forgot to do that.
Too much of the transportation sector is in the hands of the government now. Allowing streetcars or “light rail”, never mind any kind of passenger rail (despite the latter’s role in building the country) to be built in any kind of economic or frugal fashion just can’t be done, mainly because the government owns all the infrastructure (not in the case of private freight-hauling railroads) but also because of the infinite pages of government regulations that get in the way (most definitely in the case of private railroads).
This is why you don’t even see private companies running city buses anymore—they are all state or city agencies.
We don’t have fast freight on the rails anymore due to government regulations, either; there used to be freight trains running at 90 mph, but that got regulated out of existence.
See a pattern?
In the SF Bay area there is NO WHERE to build a corridor for high speed anything. The current state plan calls for bussing people from the Bay Area to the central valley to pick up a train. The top speed for the train proposed in California turns out to be less than 60 mph due to all of the right of ways and towns up and down the valley.
this map is some idiot’s wet dream
I disagree much with the “buffalo commons” idea. But how about pushing legislation to make some of more the politically correct animal worshipers up here “free the buffalo?” Then we can start a more efficient breeding program and hunt ‘em, eh? Give ‘em a dose of their own medicine, seeing as how they’ve robbed some real ranchers (animal protection laws enforced against high altitude ranchers of cattle).
“America is just too big for trains.”
HSR makes sense for regional hops of less than 400 to maybe 600 miles or along an existing (and successful) corridor like Washington DC to Boston. But for long hauls you’re right that it just can’t compete with aircraft.
Unless, of course, Obozo has his way and institutes carbon taxes that make air travel cost prohibitive for everyone but the limousine liberals.
Ridership is not a consideration.
This is a union make-work project.
Central planning. Where thinking is discouraged.
A VERY good point!
The 2359643 Government Regulations and Taxes are killing Private industry.
Which is what they want, they wanted the Bus Service etc etc too, it's all part of the Party of Government plan.
..great idea - stitch all the lib shit holes together so they can migrate faster than ever...
Tulsa's about 60 miles south and east of where he's showing it.
This idiot completely misplaces Ottawa.
Plus the cross-Florida xfer is just absurd.
Right, even high speed trains aren’t competitive with air travel on long-haul flights. The question is whether high speed trains are competitive with air travel on short haul flights?
I don’t know the answer to this, but it’s a question that is worth asking. Chicago to New York in 4 hours or so is pretty competitive (in my view) with airline service, particularly if I can arrive at Penn Station as opposed to landing in Long Island or New Jersey and having to take a car into the city.
I can fly Boston to New York a lot faster than I can take the Acela. But on the Acela, the seats are a lot more comfortable, I can spread out at a table, I can bring a computer, I can do work, and the train stops in the city. That’s pretty good.
The question is not the initial cost—which, as the author indicates, is relatively trivial over a long period of years—but the ongoing costs of maintenance and service. Would a ticket on my Chicago-NY train be $250 or $1000? All of that makes a pretty big difference, I think.
No dallas to Las Vegas. BOOOO
Hey, I want a map of unicorn farms and leprechauns with a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
“In the SF Bay area there is NO WHERE to build a corridor for high speed anything.”
Sure there is. It can be built along the right of way that Cal Train uses, it can be built elevated on top of that right of way, and it can be built under that right of way just the same as BART is built under a portion of that right of way. It could also be tunneled across the Bay to the new terminal near AT&T Park.
So long as it isn’t done with tax money I personally don’t care where they build it. Or not. It’s California - let them stew in traffic.
Trains and airports are both very heavy front cost items. It would be nice to see a long term study of something say, an Atlanta to LA 40 year cost analysis for both.
The newness of the railroad linking Washington to Boston (relatively speaking) dates to the 1900s. There were several opportunities to straighten out several curves and they were not taken. The DC politicians were promising 160-mph operation as far back as the late 1960s with the Metroliner multiple-unit trains, and they still have not delivered (what makes that sad is that they would have been the fastest trains in the world at that time if that had come to pass).
Nobody is going from New York to Los Angeles by "high speed rail."
That doesn't mean that high speed rail won't be practical between cities with much much intercity traffic.
It's not an enemy of highways or airlines, but something to help cope with and reduce congestion.
“Hey, I want a map of unicorn farms and leprechauns with a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”
Why is it that I suspect that I really could get a Federal grant to do this for you?
That ought to be a real scream at 200 MPH.
-PJ
High speed trains seem to be a communist’s wet dream.
lol
is that a REAL map or a complete joke?
so CHICAGO is the high speed rail hub of the US ?!?!?!??!!
ROFL
OMFG! you have GOT to be KIDDING Me!!! who the hell goes to Chigago!!!!!!
this is either a joke, or Obama’s personal kickback to his adopted corupt state.
Yep. Just what we need: Another money sucking, worthless Government boondoggle.
“This map is just some freelance kook’s imagining.”
Not that I support the idea, but from the article comes this statement:
>>Twu’s not just guessing where those routes should be, either. “The routes are based on various studies by government agencies and advocacy groups,” he explains. <<
That means that someone has spent taxpayer money on these various proposals and this map is just a summary of all of those proposals in one, single graphic.
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