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186 Comments
- kiloheavy, on 05/12/2009, -1/+71Yeah, but it's a dry speed.
- sinisterpines, on 05/12/2009, -0/+31Plus, you ride in the shade!
- lucas911993, on 05/12/2009, -0/+25Electromagnetic radiation (light) still makes it through the clouds. At night, they can use chemical storage (batteries) or mechanical storage (high inertia flywheels).
I digress here, but DO YOU REALLY THINK the engineers that can design a 200 MPH bullet train wouldn't consider this point? They have to deal with enormous complexities such as standing waves on steel wheels that could excite a resonance mode and cause the wheels to explode AT 220 MPH. Putting a battery in is fairly trivial. - ToRoE, on 05/12/2009, -12/+34$ 28 BIllion? For service through 6 little arizona (nowhere) towns.
fta: Their plan is to create a series of tracks that would serve stations including Chandler, Maricopa, Casa Grande, Eloy, Red Rock and Marana, and may one day stretch as far as Mexico City. The train would require 110 megawatts of electricity, which would be generated by solar panels mounted above the tracks.
Really? If this 'company' gets any high speed rail money, it would be a crime... - sigmaman2, on 05/12/2009, -4/+26Every state is coming out with its own high speed rail project. High speed rail is ultimately a good idea, but having so many separate projects re-doing the same work is just not efficient.
Go ahead and cry "socialism", but I think there should be a national standard for high speed rail. That way, trains can travel anywhere across the country, just like cars and planes. - iSeven, on 05/12/2009, -3/+23this is a great idea. I'd love to ride this one day.
- Whitebeard, on 05/12/2009, -0/+20I live in Tucson, Arizona. They've been talking about a train between Tucson and Phoenix for many many years. Transportation here sucks, but no one is willing to pay out the money. It's a good idea, but I think it's just another transportation proposition that won't ever be complete. :(
- BoneheadFarker, on 05/12/2009, -3/+18It's Arizona. The sun is ALWAYS out. Unless it's night time...
- cheezy321, on 05/12/2009, -4/+17No joke. This is a ridiculous idea. Are there really that many people that travel from Tucson to Phoenix? We need to keep the people from Tucson OUT of PHX
- sigmaman2, on 05/12/2009, -1/+14...then we shall fight in the shade!
- pe5t1lence, on 05/12/2009, -4/+16zzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooommmm
- cyrusuncc, on 05/12/2009, -1/+13ever heard of the reply feature?
It's over there ---------------------------------------------------------> - inactive, on 05/12/2009, -0/+11Attach a feather duster to the train by an arm.
- JohnnyMarr, on 05/12/2009, -1/+11Kinks or no kinks, I'm just glad we're finally talking about infrastructure. You have to start somewhere.
- mattbert, on 05/12/2009, -0/+10Phoenix and Tucson are the two largest cities in Arizona - not 'nowhere' towns.
"The innermost two tracks would be reserved for nonstop travel from Tucson to Phoenix, going 116 miles in a half hour, said Gaither. The other tracks would serve six intermediate stations in Chandler, Maricopa, Casa Grande, Eloy, Red Rock and Marana, extending the Phoenix-Tucson travel time to approximately 60 minutes, according to the project outline."
http://www.azstarnet.com/business/292000 - anstice85, on 05/12/2009, -0/+9Phoenix is the fifth or sixth largest city in the United States by population - that doesn't count as nowhere.
- mingohills, on 05/12/2009, -4/+13Hey wait a minute isn't that pork from the Stimulus Bill??? John McCain wouldn't accept that kind of money being spent in Arizona, would he?
- frequentFlyer, on 05/12/2009, -0/+9Ya know what's expensive? A useless war in iraq/afghanistan. THAT's expensive. This train could be built with one month's war funds.
- jaxter2010, on 06/17/2009, -0/+8Is there a chance the track could bend?
- Kickinuarou, on 05/12/2009, -1/+9You guys are ignorant, I live in Phoenix and am going to Tucson to U of A in the fall, there are a lot of people that travel back and forth. If the rail services the areas mentioned, that's about 5 million people at least having the ability to use this train. Phoenix's population is only getting larger and larger, not to mention the amount of money that would be saved from having it run on solar energy, and the CO2 emmissions that would be prevented from people taking this train instead of their cars.
- EonBlue66, on 05/12/2009, -1/+8Chandler is part of metro Phx...this would alleviate alot of the traffic on the 2 lane I-10. I don't think it is worth 28 Billion though.
- Mutton, on 05/12/2009, -0/+7AND SHADE IS DOWNRIGHT PLEASURABLE.
- cannuk, on 05/12/2009, -0/+6Well, technically, Phoenix is in the middle of the Metropolitan Phoenix area but I digress. I think the problem with this plan is that the main focus is Tucson. Why concentrate on Tucson? We have plenty of urban sprawl that would be served greatly by our own Phoenix Metro Area commuter line. I have always thought the money spent on the crummy light rail would have been far better spent working with the existing rail lines that reach every part of our sprawl (goodyear, surprise, chandler, mesa) and creating a commuter line. We have an incredible, historic and architecturally significant rail station sitting empty in downtown Phoenix.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Station_(Phoeni ...
How awesome would it be to reopen that as a commuter rail hub.. - yocouchdigga, on 05/12/2009, -1/+7lold
/native - tgc1, on 05/12/2009, -0/+6Awesome ideas, but this will NEVER see the light of day. Bury me, but you know its true. This is all vapor ware. IT seems only when the ***** hits the fan do ideas suddenly weasel their way out of the wood work like this. Stuff that has been collecting dust on shelves across the continental United States for decades.
- xsecretfiles, on 05/12/2009, -3/+9That's what she said!
- ToRoE, on 05/12/2009, -2/+8You might consider reading the article! (says it would cost $28 BILLION, so yeah, it's expensive.)
- happyimbecile, on 05/12/2009, -1/+7"Can't we just shut it down?"
"No, it's solar powered!"
"Psh, solar power, when will people learn?" - JohnnyMarr, on 05/12/2009, -0/+6Do you have a right to disagree with me? I would expect you to if you felt that way.
Do you have a right to act on said disagreement by not paying? Well, frankly speaking, I'm pretty sure that's out of your control.
Does it mean it's okay to not pay taxes? Absolutely not.
Your analogy would only make sense if the neighbor who broke into your house and stole your stuff is also the same guy who is protecting you, giving you the right to live where you are, and allowing you to do what it is you do in the first place.
The government isn't holding you hostage at gunpoint.
Also, I find it amusingly ironic that we're talking about a high-speed railway in Arizona, you oppose it, and your user name is "Feenix". - hokie47, on 05/12/2009, -2/+8Call me when it is built. We won't build it because no one wants to pay for anything anymore. But hey have fun with your blu-ray player and 62" HDTV, but don't bitch when it takes 4 hours to get to work and gas prices are $10/gal.
- cyrusuncc, on 05/12/2009, -3/+9Sounds expensive to build.. i hope they can pull it off
- greenleave5, on 05/12/2009, -0/+6This is actually a good idea because it might be a possibility to connect all of these systems together sometime in the distant future.
Personally, I would vote for Maglev trains. - holyskeleton, on 05/12/2009, -1/+6and we can use it in how many decades?
- sgvprelude, on 05/12/2009, -0/+5There are plenty of guys here in Downtown L.A armed with newspaper and Windex.
- SwiftKick34, on 05/12/2009, -0/+5Relative peace on Earth?
- Jektal, on 05/12/2009, -0/+5Personally I think we're so far behind the curve right now that we need some diversity in our ideas. Let's build a dozen different trains throughout the country and then evaluate which ones actually work the best.
And the country is very diverse, a solar train in NV sounds like a great idea, but I would have doubts about it working in the NE. - Jektal, on 05/12/2009, -0/+5Trained squirrels.
- santiago1, on 05/12/2009, -1/+6 It's not THAT far of a drive.... I'd rather see a train between Phoenix and the L.A. basin, or between L.A. and the Bay Area.... a distance far enough where the train can actually get up to full speed! :-)
- flip2trip, on 05/12/2009, -1/+6"I don't think those would work so well at 220mph :)"
They would if they were road runner feathers. :) beep! beep! - nosecohn, on 05/12/2009, -0/+5And we're one of the few countries big enough with infrastructure throughout that it actually makes sense.
If you think about how long it takes to get to the airport and check in, long-distance high-speed rail could actually be a good competitor for the airlines. A two-hour plane trip takes five hours door-to-door. On a 200+ mph train, the total travel time is probably not much different. - belumaves, on 05/12/2009, -4/+8and all I can think of is animals using it for shade and getting hit by the train as it goes by... mm... instant hamburger :P
- anstice85, on 05/12/2009, -1/+5Most people I've met from Tucson seem to hate Sheriff Joe. Therefore, we need more people from Tucson in Phoenix.
- BlackOculus, on 05/12/2009, -1/+5I hope they plan on employing a lot of Solar Panel Cleaners, because when it gets windy dust seems to cover everything.
Dusty Solar Panels == Low Power.
I'm sure they thought of that though... - Sporky023, on 05/12/2009, -1/+5Well at least it's better than spending our money on munitions and actively destroying infrastructure.
Heck, from a material wealth perspective, if we started just tossing our money in the trash we'd be doing better than we are in Iraq.
attn: world leaders
cc: world
subject: orders from Luke
Dear folks, please stop blowing ***** up. Build ***** instead.
Thanks
- Luke - themadhatter444, on 05/12/2009, -0/+4I'm a Phoenix native and make the trek to Tucson a couple of times a year. It's a pain in the ass to drive but should, in no way, warrant a $28 billion dollar fix. We've got bigger financial fish to fry.
- fxdbi, on 05/12/2009, -0/+4.11 GIGAWATTS!!
- cromulent742, on 05/12/2009, -0/+4Too many Fustigations lately. This Fustigation has become tired and lame.
- zippy757, on 05/12/2009, -0/+4...sounds like a Popular Mechanics story.... i.e. "travelers going ... may SOON .. "
...if they had the money for this, it would not be in service for at least 15-20 years...the environmental studies alone would be 5+ years....
..I'm fairly sure I saw this exact same story in PM about 20 years ago.... - Darksoul, on 05/12/2009, -3/+7@ToRoE
"$ 28 BIllion? For service through 6 little arizona (nowhere) towns."
Your an idiot, you have no idea what you are talking about for one Maricopa County is a massive area and includes several city's we have more then half the states people here alone. It ranks fourth for the most populated areas in the United States, we also have five Indian reservations in this area.
* Apache Junction (most of Apache Junction is in Pinal County)
* Avondale
* Chandler
* El Mirage
* Glendale
* Goodyear
* Litchfield Park
* Mesa
* Peoria (part of Peoria is in Yavapai County)
* Phoenix
* Scottsdale
* Surprise
* Tempe
* Tolleson
I already knew this as I live in Arizona in Maricopa County, but its amazing what wikipedia will tell you wont it moron. Which means its also going to go threw Chandler, Case Grande, Eloy, Red Rock and Marana. Add all those citys and county's togther and we have no major transportation service here. Next time you speak know what the hell you are talking about. Sorry to burst your reality bubble but your an idiot. - Fejerro, on 05/12/2009, -0/+4The ring came off my pudding can.
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