this post was submitted on 02 May 2026
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[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works -5 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

What's the alternative though? High speed rail would be nice, but since that won't happen, you'd just have all those people driving cars instead.

[–] TheJesusaurus@piefed.ca 17 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

What's the alternative?

Names existing, tried and tested alternative that has been working well for 200 years

Naw, can't do that, it'd be hard.

(This is you)

[–] Bbbbbbbbbbb@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

Id love to see a bullet train from LA to Tokyo

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Okay please point out all these high speed rail projects happening around the country. AFAIK there's only one in SoCal and its been delayed for years and several orders of magnitude over budget. You people act like its just a matter of snapping your fingers and we suddenly have a high speed rail network, walkable cities, and no need for cars or airplanes.

I'm not opposed to any of this but we're just as likely to get transporter technology to rid ourselves of cars. Don't get mad at me for bringing you guys back down to earth.

[–] tehn00bi@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

There’s one in Texas that seems to have high potential of actually happening.

https://www.texashsr.com/project/

[–] TheJesusaurus@piefed.ca 1 points 3 weeks ago

I mean it's not like I think trains come from magic. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. If you never start, it will never exist.

[–] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 7 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Why won't it happen? High speed rail is a mature proven technology

[–] tehn00bi@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Not in this country. It’s nearly impossible to get the land to make it possible. Then it’s the fact that large districts are far apart. The economics of rail are tough. You take a 4 hour flight, it becomes a 16 hour rail trip.

[–] bridgeburner@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Because Big Oil doesn't profit from high speed trains, since those trains don't run on fossil fuels (at least not directly). And everyone knows Big Oil rules the US in truth. Every president is just more or less a puppet from them.

[–] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 weeks ago

Thankfully oil's a dying industry now

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works -1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Because there's zero political will to do so, our nation is huge, and there's no land to build this rail on without lots of eminent domain seizures.

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 0 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

The USSR was a lot bigger, less dense, and less developed. They managed rail.

As far as eminent domain goes, half our cities are parking lot and road. You can also simply elevate the rail. Or you can do what the chinese do and not build the station in the city center and instead run subways connecting the rail stations everywhere. IMO this is worse than building the train station near downtown.

[–] TheJesusaurus@piefed.ca 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The communist agrarian country has less issues with eminent domain? You don't say

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 1 points 3 weeks ago

China has 18 cities over 10 million and 113 over 1 million. You can look up stuck nail houses to see the issues they had with eminent domain.

It's not that expensive to get people to agree to give up their homes if you're building tons of new housing and can just give them that.

[–] stumu415@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Since when do the Chinese build stations outside of the city? I can pick from any 4 stations all centrally located in Shanghai, and get off the train after 4 hours in the heart of Beijing and be in my hotel in 15 minutes. The same goes for any city. Chinese build airports outside of the city. If I would do the same trip with flights, I need travel 1 hour to the airport, be there 1 hour before, 2 hour flight, land 1 hour outside of Beijing. That's 5 hours if all goes smooth. This is why high speed rail is the preferred option to travel. Especially if you can afford business class.

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 1 points 3 weeks ago

Shanghai station is north of downtown, most HSR goes into Hongqiao anyway.

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

I know: Zeppelins.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 0 points 3 weeks ago

The alternative is simply not going on a jaunt to Greece. It's a luxury.