this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
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Texas could get a 205-mph bullet train zipping between Houston and Dallas::The proposed electric railway line could travel 240 miles in under 90 minutes for over 6 million passengers per year.

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[–] ilmagico@lemmy.world 126 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I doubt it ... first, it's electric, and second, you cannot install a lift kit on it.

[–] Moonguide@lemmy.world 37 points 11 months ago

But you could add some truck nuts behind every train car and some bull horns on the front.

[–] Steeve@lemmy.ca 4 points 11 months ago

It's electric, but a diesel engine strictly for "rolling coal" at cyclists will also be installed.

[–] joshuaacasey@lemmy.world 74 points 11 months ago (1 children)

they can't even keep their power grid functioning in extreme hot or cold weather 🤔

[–] chalupapocalypse@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Right? Sorry folks, no train today, it's over 80f or below 30f degrees out

[–] Objects@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 11 months ago

Naw. They’d be a couple miles down the track before the electric goes out.

[–] Proweruser@feddit.de 70 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] HerbalGamer@lemmy.world 28 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I dunno, they do like bullets

[–] Matthew@programming.dev 5 points 11 months ago

That's how you sell it to them

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

On the other hand, one of the reasons they like bullets is because they can be used to kill minorities. A bullet train designed in a certain way can kill both a lot of minorities and public interest in mass transportation.

[–] Pocketyeti@lemmy.world 50 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Been talking about this for years, wake me up when they actually start doing something.

[–] Matt_Shatt@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Seriously. It comes up every couple of years. Then the residents of Grimes county get all up in arms, put signs all along highway 6, vote against it, and then it dies a silent death.

[–] blueeggsandyam@lemmy.world 43 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I live in Texas and this is unlikely to happen. It was more likely to happen a few years back. I doubt they will build a eletric train between two liberal cities. The only thing that would make it less likely is if you said it was a gay eletric train. Even if they did, Texas cities are sprawled out and require a car. It would only work if you could load your car on the train. It would be useful for students going back and forth to their universities. However, university students are almost as despised as poor people or minorities to most of the voters in Texas.

[–] rigatti@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago (1 children)

What if they promised to put guns on the front of the train? Would that help?

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I love the way you think.

Put gunner's nests on the train, B-52 style.

Advertise the shit out of that job.

We'll have republicans building trains between neighborhoods by the end of the year.

[–] supercriticalcheese@feddit.it 3 points 11 months ago

Yes exactly that. You can't start a high speed train and expect for it to work.

Each train can handle the same amount of passengers as a couple large planes if not more. When they arrive at the destination something is needed for them to reach their destination..

[–] hactar42@lemmy.world 38 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The biggest obstacle, besides politics and oil/gas money, is neither of these cities are non-car friendly. Both cities are so sprawling you end up spending significantly more time using public transportation than driving. That's even if public transportation goes to the part of the city you need.

[–] APassenger@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

They'll each need an intermodal stop. That would be so much easier on passengers than the traditional airport stop and, given projected volume, would be essential.

DART is pretty alright if you're near a stop.

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 35 points 11 months ago (1 children)

“Could” being the operative word. People have been trying to build this since the 1990s.

[–] ictinus@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

You've gotta laugh... It is the same everywhere I think: Is a high-speed rail possible in Australia

[–] w2qw@aussie.zone 1 points 11 months ago

Sydney to Melbourne looks ridiculous in comparison with like three times the distance.

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[–] Asimo@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago
[–] weedazz@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Not sure if it's going to happen in Texas, but the Bright line high speed rail between Miami and Orlando is going to be finished by the end of the month hopefully!

[–] EpicFailGuy@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

That shit has been a battle for the best part of two decades .... Can't believe it finally happened

[–] hobovision@lemm.ee 4 points 11 months ago

For what it's worth, Brightline Florida isn't quite considered high speed by most metrics. It will have a short 125 mph section, which is kinda the minimum design speed to be considered high speed. The state of rail in the US is so bad though that Brightline Florida might actually have a higher average speed than the Acela...

Brightline West between southern CA and Las Vegas will be designed as a deticated high speed line though.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Elorn will find a way to get it scrapped like he did in california.

[–] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 11 months ago (3 children)

This. We'd have a high speed rail going between San Diego and Seattle by now if Mush hadn't gotten everyone exploring hyperloop (a concept we've known to be terrible for over a century now).

[–] infotainment@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

As fun as it is to watch Musk do dumb stuff, giving him credit for killing HSR is a reach. There’s a really great article about it here — even Epstein was involved for some reason!

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/us/california-high-speed-rail-politics.html

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

And at this point, who is going to listen to anything he says and think that they'd want him having any kind of control over something he talks about even if it does sound like a good idea?

[–] TwoGems@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

I love how people listened to Elon when he doesn't even have an engineering degree. Proof that the media can spin anyone into a celebrity "genius."

[–] 4am@lemm.ee 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

“But how we gonna roll coal in that thing?!”

[–] qaz@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

At least it's called a bullet train

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

So that's where they export the outdated European first generation trains from the 80s to.

[–] socialmedia@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)
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[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 8 points 11 months ago

I tried to find the existing Houston rail station on foot one time. It took an hour. There were few helpful signs and sidewalks only some of the time.

[–] wosat@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I'm seeing a lot of commenters shitting on Texas here, and while it's not completely undeserved, I'd like to point out that Texas is 1st in the nation in wind power generation. Texas will implement things -- even "Blue" things -- if the economics make sense.

[–] SaintWacko@midwest.social 10 points 11 months ago

They may generate the most wind power, but that's just because they're so big. They're not even in the top 10 if you look at what percentage of their power generation is from wind power

[–] vanontom@geddit.social 9 points 11 months ago

Republicans like Abbott went on Fox News and blamed windmills for the storm outage. The party is very different than they were when these projects started, when economics mattered. Texas politics may still accidentally allow a select few progressive things to happen, but the builders and owners must be extremely "friendly" and perfectly thread the needle. Oil and gas owns this state, including the windmills, probably.

[–] Asimo@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago