BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

the difficulty with high speed rail is that it will require trillions of dollars to develop - much like the interstate highway system. Early interstates were developed in corridors which had a need for high speed connectivity, not simply to connect one big city to another. There was a method to the madness, so to speak.

High Speed Rail will play out the same way, employing public, private, or PPP funding.

Locally, Harrisburg to Philly has the ridership to cultivate the corridor and achieve higher speeds through the existing corridor. For many reasons - that the $750k was to study - Pittsburgh to Harrisburg doesn't have the ridership.

Nationally, Pittsburgh will be a spur line to any build out of high speed rail. We don't have economic, political or financial wherewithal to begin high speed rail or even produce a "hub."

Cleveland will most likely be the hub for Buffalo/Toronto, Northeast Coastal cities to Chicago and St. Louis; Pittsburgh will not.

Hoping not to turn this into a giant political argument with my statement, but does anyone think that Western PA will begin to get more attention for funding and projects with the next governor coming from this side of the state?

Given the population of Philly and the flatter landscape between there and Harrisburg, I understand the high speed rail funding making more immediate sense. Not to mention the easy connectivity along the other major cities on the Eastern Seaboard.

I was hoping "high speed rail" meant at least a 50 mph moving average from Pgh to Harrisburg. I don't need an airline speed train, just not sitting for a half hour while waiting for freight traffic to clear, as has been my experience.

The Pennsy conquered the Alleghenies in 1854. Why is it so hard to get a fast train across them almost 160 years later?

i'm torn between being negative and commenting that most pittsburghers believe this is the center of the universe and why would anybody want to go anywhere else, and positive, in that with all the universities and more industries moving to town (energy, tech, medical) the demand will push development forward (though not as fast as philly, which is so much larger).

Holy run-on, batman, I'm sorry. With rail... I find it difficult to be as cheery as with other developments in the area. We are no longer the steel cradle of the world, rail here has not recovered since.

ejwme, we need to go to other places on vacation! That's all.

And by "other places" you of course mean Ocean City.

most pittsburghers believe this is the center of the universe

It is, you know. Right at the corner of Forbes and Murray.