We're too stupid for train travel | THE COLLINE GATE

robeiae
Thaumaturge

On a down bound train

Posts: 6,692

We're too stupid for train travel Jan 23, 2018 9:13:14 GMT -5

Post by robeiae on Jan 23, 2018 9:13:14 GMT -5

South Florida has a privately owned high-speed rail system called Brightline. It's planned to run from Orlando to Miami with stops at Cocoa Beach, West Palm, and Fort Lauderdale. Eventually, they hope to expand to Jacksonville and Tampa Bay. Right now, only the West Plam-Ft. Lauderdale segment is in operation; it started on January 13th of this year. Riders have been pretty happy with the service so far, from what I've heard, and it fills a pretty bog need, I think (the State has been talking about this kind of set up for decades, but has never been able to get its act together.

Sounds good, right?

Unfortunately, there have been two deaths in less than a week, one on January 12th (during a special VIP sneak-peak run) and one on January 17th.

The first:

Boynton Beach Police identified Melissa Lavell as the woman who was fatally struck by a Brightline train Friday night.

Witnesses told police it appeared that the 31-year-old Boynton Beach woman was crossing the tracks in Boynton Beach after the guard rails were down and was on the tracks as the train approached.

The second:

According to Boynton Beach police, 51-year-old Boynton Beach resident Jeffrey King tried to beat the train Wednesday afternoon and pedaled around the gates as he crossed the tracks going west on East Ocean Avenue. King was struck by one of Brightline’s trains, which only began carrying paying passengers from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale Saturday.

These aren't kids. They're adults who should know better, right? Guard rails come down, you stop--no matter if you're on foot, on a bike, or in a car--and wait for the train to pass. Predictably, Florida politicians are falling all over themselves in calling for investigations and better safety features; Rubio is the latest.

But what are they gonna do? Station a full time guard at every crossing? Have more signage, i.e. "Caution: getting hit by a train going 125 mph can result in severe bodily harm"?

Perhaps these are outliers though, and will serve as wake-up calls to people who think they can beat trains at crossings. I have my doubts. I suspect that either a) the whole system will get scrapped because of onerous new "safety" regulations or b) the speed will be cut down to the point that it will no longer be "high speed," leading to a slow death of project.

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Don
Illuminati

Posts: 1,547

We're too stupid for train travel Jan 23, 2018 10:59:17 GMT -5

Post by Don on Jan 23, 2018 10:59:17 GMT -5

I suspect you're right.

Good thing it's privately-owned, though. It's far less likely they'll come up with some extravagant, economically stupid idea like fencing or elevating the whole length of the track, because they'd go bust. Unless they can get Tallahassee to foot the bill.

____________________________________________________
Economics puts parameters on people’s utopias. ~Peter Boettke
"It's the voter's fault" is victim-blaming in its purest sense. ~Don
The 'social contract' is to the politician what 'original sin' is to the priest. ~Don
The vision of the helpful and protective state is the most pervasive and counter-productive ideology in the world today. ~Don
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Deleted
Deleted Member

Posts: 0

We're too stupid for train travel Jan 23, 2018 11:18:22 GMT -5

Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2018 11:18:22 GMT -5

Rant/

You know, trains can rock. Trains between major cities in much of Europe, for example, tend to be speedy and pretty awesome. In or between highly populated areas, they can beat the hell out of driving.

But somehow, we just don't do them well. The trains between New York and DC, Philly, or Boston are OK (door-to-door time actually can beat taking a plane, once you factor in TSA time, etc., plus you're spending your time sitting on the train where you can work, read, or sleep, not standing in lines, plus you can get up, move around, get coffee and snacks, etc.), but they just aren't as efficient or as nice as comparable ones in Europe.

And don't get me started on the train between New York and Albany, Buffalo, etc. It's ridiculously cheap as a rule to go from New York to Buffalo on a train (for some reason, it is sometimes cheaper or at least no more expensive than the much shorter journey between New York and Albany, which is actually on the way to Buffalo!). But it's also ridiculously unpleasant and takes far too long. It takes more time to take the train than to drive, which is just ludicrous. I can drive it easily in 8 hours -- the train takes at least nine hours and usually (because it is always delayed interminably along the way to let freight trains go by) more like 11. The only advantage it has is that you can spend the time working or sleeping rather than driving. That is, if you aren't unfortunate enough to have cell-phone screamers in your car (for reasons I cannot comprehend, the NYC-Buffalo train never has a quiet car. Me, I'd make them ALL quiet cars, and have a single cell-phone-permitted car where the screamers can congregate if they wish.

It's not that the trains aren't used -- they are. The ones between NYC, Boston and DC are always busy -- even the train between NYC and Buffalo has always been packed when I'm on it. They'd likely be used even more if they were more efficient and perhaps a bit nicer. Indeed, Amtrak -- I'd be willing to pay more if that were the case.

By the way, Amtrak? I appreciate that we have more room on trains than we do on planes. That's fab. But what's up with not having between individual seats armrests in coach? We're not all couples wanting to cuddle, and there are a lot of encroachers out there who take up two-thirds of a seat. Flip up armrests would make a YUUUUUGE difference.

/end rant

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