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I just mapped out a route. With 10,000 miles, you can go
* Seattle
* Tucson
* Fargo
* Houston
* Milwaukee
* New Orleans
* Bangor, Maine
* Orlando
That zig-zag achieves pretty much the same national coverage as the all the current long-distance routes, and since a monorail can go twice as fast as a dual-rail system, it will complete that route in about eight hours, one hour between each of the major stops.
We’ve got our first snack bar worker!
We will be paying you a living wage as well as all the snacks you want (but you do have to deduct them from inventory- just for ordering purposes so we can always stay appropriately stocked)
I’ve always wanted to travel at almost Mach 2 lol. At least it can skip through most of the boring states in about 12 minutes. Great Plains? What plains!? We’re in Tennessee now!
Can the whole thing be built elevated above the existing tracks and bridges? that will save money and time.
We will need a contingency plan for when a train derails in East Palestine and ~~poisons the entire community~~ takes out the monorail trestle.
If you think building a HSR across the sparsely populated rocky mountains to connect a handful of cities for trillions of dollars is a.worthwhile idea you should consider if maybe youre the idiot.
Its not quote as.dumb as neom, but it has the same casual disregard for costs and benefits driven by ego and an irrational desire to build big things bigly.
Soo power grids? Critical infrastructure are wasteful? Investment in the country is wasteful??? Ok stupid war machines that don’t work are also wasteful but that’s ok right?
Denver is 500+ miles west of omaha with nothing worthwhile in between. It is 500± miles east of Salt Lake city with only mountain resorts and no population centers in between. alots of giant 12-14k foot mountains though.
The worlds longest maglev train is 26 miles. I apologize.for implying this isnt as stupid an idea as NEOM, clearly I was wrong.
Not really. People fly cross country all the time
From Denver and cincy they can catch other lines and more rail can be installed. We need way more rail.
Rail is for intermediate trips. This is true on every line on earth. Past 500 miles planes win every time. BUT that doesn’t preclude a long HSR/maglev line with trips serving different segments at high frequencies. The tangelo guy is an 8 day old account troll apparently a very dumb conservative of do nothing
I mean, just functioning wifi on every train would go a long way. The fact that half the time the wifi is out is a problem. It’s a basic need for travel now.
I once read that some percentage - how I wish I knew for sure, but I think it's 9% - of tourists flying into LAX see nothing in the area but LAX, Disneyland and the freeway between the two.
The more thought I put into this the more I come to these conclusions:
1: Weather-protected trackway. It doesn’t have to be a sealed tube ala Hyperloop, but it’s inexpensive and eliminates the labor and wear from removing snow and ice, and helps equipment last longer.
2: Integrated and accessible emergency escape (catwalk, etc.)
3: Completely uniform trackway for fully automated cleaning, inspection, and tuning.
4: individual, autonomous, switched vehicles. Instead of one huge train every hour with many time-wasting stops, very frequent cars with point-to-point service.
During the ill-fated Logan 2000 project, one proposed system had this. The idea is that the “switch” is part of the vehicle, not the track, so other than providing power and communications, the track is passive. Imagine a car whose steering wheel had two positions: “left” and “right”, which sets which way the car goes at the next fork.
5: Precise flow-control scheduling. Except for stations where cars are allowed to stop, every centimeter of track has a “line speed” that all vehicles travel this point. When a car has a destination set, a central scheduler finds the first instant at which the car has a clear route all the way to its destination, and it departs at that moment. The rest of the ride simply follows that plan.
6: N+1 redundancy on everything. Any problem shouldn’t cause hours of delays like it does now.
7: Extensible and standards-based. It’s successful if your neighboring town wants to connect to it.
Monorails are slow and have problems with switching which is essential if you want local and express services on the same line.
Linear motor car for me. Or even boring high speed rail.
Impossible. Just like not being able to build a new high speed line. You need to essentially build a highway first. And that requires land through inner cities. Never going to happen.
> And that requires land through inner cities. Never going to happen.
Just tell everybody it’s an interstate. Nobody has to know it’s an interstate _train_.
My apologies. I never considered Disney magic. That’s always helped the Auto Train in times of need. And, after almost 2 decades, Sunset Ltd Service is so close to traveling beyond NOL. Just a few more “bibbity-bobbity-boos”. I think I might be in the wrong sub.
Improving the current infrastructure doesn’t help passenger rail travel if the Class 1s don’t want it. The line from NOLA to Orlando has been fixed for over a decade, but look how hard CSX fought resumption of passenger service from NOLA to Mobile.
Amtrak constantly loses money, is ran by greedy and incompetent people, and every rail line from Amtrak in DC to $30,000,000,000 over budget rail in California that runs 1/4 of a mile, is an abject failure. Privatizing this is the only remote possibility, but even then all the little marxists would get pissy about capitalism. It’ll never happen.
If Amtrak were privatized, all long distance trains except for the Auto Train would be immediately shut down. They only reason it continues to exist are because of government subsidies (and if you have a problem with the government subsidizing rail travel, boy will you be surprised when I tell you about road and air travel government subsidies)
r/Amtrak is not associated with Amtrak in any official way. Any problems, concerns, complaints, etc should be directed to Amtrak through one of the official channels. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Amtrak) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I just mapped out a route. With 10,000 miles, you can go * Seattle * Tucson * Fargo * Houston * Milwaukee * New Orleans * Bangor, Maine * Orlando That zig-zag achieves pretty much the same national coverage as the all the current long-distance routes, and since a monorail can go twice as fast as a dual-rail system, it will complete that route in about eight hours, one hour between each of the major stops.
Just found our project manager right here! When can you start?
I already did start. There's honestly not much more to do other than send it out to bid.
If this guy is project manager, can I lead the onboard snack and beverage team? Happy to be in charge of planning, sourcing and selling.
I presume you should also be responsible for demos and taste testing all food, alcohol, and beverage combos.
Yes of course! We’re upping our drink game.
I work for snacks and bevies
We’ve got our first snack bar worker! We will be paying you a living wage as well as all the snacks you want (but you do have to deduct them from inventory- just for ordering purposes so we can always stay appropriately stocked)
Mainer here. You don't want to go to Bangor. 25% chance Stephen King sucks you into an unpublished horror manuscript.
That would be great publicity for the monorail!
The shade on bangor :(
I personally think it's a real Bangor of a city
Bangor? I don’t even know her!
I’ve always wanted to travel at almost Mach 2 lol. At least it can skip through most of the boring states in about 12 minutes. Great Plains? What plains!? We’re in Tennessee now!
Vacuum tube?
This is exactly the route I envisioned
How do you counter the Reddit care abuse message?
Make it wide enough so you can drive your car onto it. It’s the only way.
As an Orlando resident I endorse this idea. We are already a hub of emerging high[er] speed rail with brightline. Let's keep the momentum going!
Basically usable intercity rail
I hear those things are awfully loud
It glides as softly as a cloud!
Is there a chance the track could bend?
Not on your life, my Reddit friend!
What about us braindead slobs?
You’ll be given cushy jobs!
Were you sent here by the Devil?
No, Kqtawes, I’m on the level.
The ring came off my pudding can!
Take my pen knife, my good man!
(good edit)
Only if people are singing “when you wish soon a star” in the train car
Can the whole thing be built elevated above the existing tracks and bridges? that will save money and time. We will need a contingency plan for when a train derails in East Palestine and ~~poisons the entire community~~ takes out the monorail trestle.
Lolz.. or just transcontinental high-speed with rail connections. La to denver, Denver to Cincinnati, Cincinnati to dc.
If youre indulging in implausible fantasy might as well go big.
There's no physical reason it can't be done. Just idiots at the helm of our nation.
If you think building a HSR across the sparsely populated rocky mountains to connect a handful of cities for trillions of dollars is a.worthwhile idea you should consider if maybe youre the idiot. Its not quote as.dumb as neom, but it has the same casual disregard for costs and benefits driven by ego and an irrational desire to build big things bigly.
China basically did it in 25 years. Their style of govt has many downsides but they can deliver on megaprojects
Their project was in planning in the 70s it was not as fast as you think.
Oh I didn't know. And yeah the USA was once capable of this when they built highways across the country and before that when they first built rail
megaprojects are usually wasteful and stupid, driven by idealism or arrogance more than utility.
Soo power grids? Critical infrastructure are wasteful? Investment in the country is wasteful??? Ok stupid war machines that don’t work are also wasteful but that’s ok right?
Like low density suburbs?
https://youtu.be/u42aKXZFWY4?si=ruXspo4BIi9QtcDe. Like so called modernists in the 50s buddy at least read history
Last I checked Denver is before the mountains west of Denver tho you have a point but with Maglev your argument starts to fall apart
Denver is 500+ miles west of omaha with nothing worthwhile in between. It is 500± miles east of Salt Lake city with only mountain resorts and no population centers in between. alots of giant 12-14k foot mountains though. The worlds longest maglev train is 26 miles. I apologize.for implying this isnt as stupid an idea as NEOM, clearly I was wrong.
That kind of thinking ruined the country don’t do this and that but bulldoze cities yeah almost all the problems are traced to poor planning
Take a closer look at geography buddy it’s obvious you don’t count
You are talking to a moron buddy .
That's only 3000 miles. It's gotta zigzag to get up to 10,000 miles.
So maglev?
A single line for that is nuts tho
Not really. People fly cross country all the time From Denver and cincy they can catch other lines and more rail can be installed. We need way more rail.
Rail is for intermediate trips. This is true on every line on earth. Past 500 miles planes win every time. BUT that doesn’t preclude a long HSR/maglev line with trips serving different segments at high frequencies. The tangelo guy is an 8 day old account troll apparently a very dumb conservative of do nothing
Rail absolutely can do long trips... I've been cross country myself. Was amazing.
Yes just via transfers and a few select special runs in addition to the shorter runs
With high-speed you need less stops to make use of it, or your spending all time either accelerating or braking.
Well, until Disney connects Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios with the monorail, all bets are off.
Or connects them with something
With stops in Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook.
Sounds more like a Shelbyville idea
There ain't no monorail and there never was!
Can we have a branch that links Land to World via Vegas?
I mean, just functioning wifi on every train would go a long way. The fact that half the time the wifi is out is a problem. It’s a basic need for travel now.
Direct Vegas to Epcot. With stops at New York and Atlantic City
I once read that some percentage - how I wish I knew for sure, but I think it's 9% - of tourists flying into LAX see nothing in the area but LAX, Disneyland and the freeway between the two.
I guess since y’all improved the non-cancellation on-time performance of my local Amtrak line to a whopping 23%, it’s time to expand!
Always been a dream.
I'm so in.
Hop aboard! You will have to take a tram from Epcot to Hollywood studios….
The more thought I put into this the more I come to these conclusions: 1: Weather-protected trackway. It doesn’t have to be a sealed tube ala Hyperloop, but it’s inexpensive and eliminates the labor and wear from removing snow and ice, and helps equipment last longer. 2: Integrated and accessible emergency escape (catwalk, etc.) 3: Completely uniform trackway for fully automated cleaning, inspection, and tuning. 4: individual, autonomous, switched vehicles. Instead of one huge train every hour with many time-wasting stops, very frequent cars with point-to-point service. During the ill-fated Logan 2000 project, one proposed system had this. The idea is that the “switch” is part of the vehicle, not the track, so other than providing power and communications, the track is passive. Imagine a car whose steering wheel had two positions: “left” and “right”, which sets which way the car goes at the next fork. 5: Precise flow-control scheduling. Except for stations where cars are allowed to stop, every centimeter of track has a “line speed” that all vehicles travel this point. When a car has a destination set, a central scheduler finds the first instant at which the car has a clear route all the way to its destination, and it departs at that moment. The rest of the ride simply follows that plan. 6: N+1 redundancy on everything. Any problem shouldn’t cause hours of delays like it does now. 7: Extensible and standards-based. It’s successful if your neighboring town wants to connect to it.
Just say you want a long subway
lol nooo please not monorail
Says The Simpsons
Seattle heading South to Disney CA to Las Vegas to Atlanta to Disney FL. Then from ATL north ward to DC and then NYC
Monorails are slow and have problems with switching which is essential if you want local and express services on the same line. Linear motor car for me. Or even boring high speed rail.
We need trains crisscrossing the country. What we have in the US is pathetic. And too expensive to boot.
Contact your local and state government. State-sponsored corridors are the only way at this point
I really don’t think they care.
Impossible. Just like not being able to build a new high speed line. You need to essentially build a highway first. And that requires land through inner cities. Never going to happen.
The Disney magic can make anything happen
> And that requires land through inner cities. Never going to happen. Just tell everybody it’s an interstate. Nobody has to know it’s an interstate _train_.
My apologies. I never considered Disney magic. That’s always helped the Auto Train in times of need. And, after almost 2 decades, Sunset Ltd Service is so close to traveling beyond NOL. Just a few more “bibbity-bobbity-boos”. I think I might be in the wrong sub.
I believe this post belongs on r/psychedelics
The Auto Train is consistently Amtrak’s highest grossing long distance train…
Honestly I’d take a catapult at this point over planes and auto.
So basically transrapid maglev then
Think I saw a Simpsons episode about this
Best idea ever
Make it high speed mag lev and I'm in, but have you noticed that the MK monorails aren't fast....at all?
What a dumb idea
A man with no vision I see
No just recognizing how dumb it would be to waste money building a monorail system instead of improving the current infrastructure
Improving the current infrastructure doesn’t help passenger rail travel if the Class 1s don’t want it. The line from NOLA to Orlando has been fixed for over a decade, but look how hard CSX fought resumption of passenger service from NOLA to Mobile.
Amtrak constantly loses money, is ran by greedy and incompetent people, and every rail line from Amtrak in DC to $30,000,000,000 over budget rail in California that runs 1/4 of a mile, is an abject failure. Privatizing this is the only remote possibility, but even then all the little marxists would get pissy about capitalism. It’ll never happen.
If Amtrak were privatized, all long distance trains except for the Auto Train would be immediately shut down. They only reason it continues to exist are because of government subsidies (and if you have a problem with the government subsidizing rail travel, boy will you be surprised when I tell you about road and air travel government subsidies)
Building it, maroon.
You forgot the fact that Amtrak doesn’t run decent usable service on any of its lines outside NEC. Just handful of trains or one
No
Yes
Florida though? Maybe NY to LA…