RayChuang From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 7560 posts, RR: 6 Posted (11 years 1 month 1 week 3 days 8 hours ago) and read 494 times:
I just read the series of articles on MSNBC.com's web page from Newsweek magazine about the issues of air traffic delays and poor passenger experiences with air travel today.
They had suggested seven different potential solutions to the problem; I'm surprised there is not consideration for an eighth solution: reduce air travel for distances under 1,000 kilometers (621 miles).
With high-speed steel rail trains reaching over 300 km/h (186 mph) and the promise of maglev trains reaching over 500 km/h (310 mph), it is now possible to go from city center to city center on high-speed rail/maglev systems in a very short time. So, instead of flying a whole bunch of flights between Atlanta (ATL) and Orlando, FL (MCO), we can have very fast ground transportation routed Atlanta-Savannah-Jacksonville-Orlando, which can probably be completed in 2.5 hours end to end. By reducing shorter distance flying because more passengers will be travelling by high-speed rail systems, this will free up landing slots that could be better used for planes flying longer distances on flights over 1000 km in range.
Fanoftristars From United States of America, joined Jul 2000, 1549 posts, RR: 6 Reply 1, posted (11 years 1 month 1 week 3 days 8 hours ago) and read 471 times:
That seems like a great idea to me, but the driving factor is going to be MONEY. If investors can gain a rewarding return on their $$$ then we might see it happen. I don't think the federal gov has the money to spend on trains such as these at this point, so it would have to come from the private sector.
Cedarjet From United Kingdom, joined exactly 13 years ago today! , 7347 posts, RR: 56 Reply 2, posted (11 years 1 month 1 week 3 days 6 hours ago) and read 462 times:
And Boeing still insist there is no demand for big planes, and the industry needs MORE flights? The trains thing is a brilliant idea btw. I guess the US gov't isn't interested in anything that might reduce pollution or help our environment, and conventional trains - let alone maglev or whatever - are so expensive to build, we'll probably never see something like this in our lifetimes. I agree the private sector probably can't afford it.
FlyBoeing From United States of America, joined May 2000, 866 posts, RR: 2 Reply 3, posted (11 years 1 month 1 week 3 days 3 hours ago) and read 456 times:
I think that a better solution would be to have "smart roads" for inter-city travel. Here are my reasons why a "smart road" would be a good idea (a smart road is a road that allows for cars to go a lot faster and be automatically guided) :
1) Rails will never be as popular as people think because they are the least efficient way of getting people from suburb to suburb. That's where people live these days in the US. Yes, rails are fine for people to get along heavily trafficked corridors such as Washington to Baltimore to Philadelphia to New York to Boston- there is a lot of dependable demand on that route and people want to travel from city center to city center.
2) Busses have the same problem as trains. No bus will get you to where you want to go. Time is of the essence.
3) Trains and busses are efficient when they're full but when they're not (and this is usually the case in the US) they waste a lot of diesel fuel or electricity.
Cars in the US can be made much more efficient. New cars these days don't pollute much at all. With gas prices the way they are, hybrid cars (not the way the Japanese build them but the simpler, cheaper American method) are going to come along.
So how do we relieve the congestion? Well, if we could have special lanes where drivers in smart cars could pay extra (a la EZ pass, which is how a lot of NJ Turnpike drivers pay their tolls...no waiting in line) and have their cars automatically guided along a series of magnets, cars could get much closer to each other and they could go a lot faster if human reflexes weren't in the loop. After the interstate travel is finished, the car reverts back to manual control for the driver to get to his final destination. They built a road like that in San Diego and it seems to work.
Goingboeing From United States of America, joined Dec 1999, 4875 posts, RR: 22 Reply 4, posted (11 years 1 month 1 week 3 days 2 hours ago) and read 445 times:
Your solution would put Southwest Airlines out of business.
DCA-ROCguy From United States of America, joined Apr 2000, 4379 posts, RR: 43 Reply 5, posted (11 years 1 month 1 week 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 427 times:
The seven suggestions in the Newsweek article all seemed reasonable to me. I haven't read the whole thing, but at least the seven suggestions address all aspects of the problem and don't put all the blame on one player (eg airlines or ATC).
High-speed trains from Atlanta to Orlando will happen when Disney wants to pay for them. Which is highly unlikely.
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