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YIMBYLAND
@YIMBYLAND
Texas tried to build a High Speed Rail back in the 1990s. But Southwest Airlines killed it because they convinced the state that they would have affordable travel between the cities and free checked bags. Now Southwest has neither... ...and Texas doesn't have high speed rail.
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CBS News
@CBSNews
Southwest Airlines is ending its free checked bags policy for many passengers for the first time in its 54-year history. cbsn.ws/4ij9tye
654.1K
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David Watson ๐Ÿฅ‘
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YIMBYLAND
@YIMBYLAND
Imagine how much more dominant the Texas Triangle would have been if we actually started building a TGV back in the 90s.
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20K
La Jolla Populist
@liberscravola
High speed rail makes a lot more sense in flat Texas Triangle than CA. The mountains geting in & out of the central valley slow things down. Doing this back in the 80s before things got so developed would have been ideal.
9.8K
Meredith Munger| ADUloans.net | CrossCountry
@ADUloans
Stop with promoting old tech. It's still far cheaper to fly than take a train, it's just that the taxpayers are on the hook for most of the fare. A better option self-driving EVs. More environmentally friendly, convenient, faster, safer. $0 cost to taxpayers
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Baumgaji
@baumgaji
Thirty years is a pretty good run. Is there any private investment interest for HSR in Texas like Brightline Florida?
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FrostByte
@Frost_Byte_99
So a company that was a MAIN COMPETITOR for this high speed rail project told them that it wouldn't make sense to build a competing travel route and then they removed those "advantages" they had later on? Whoa! Didn't see that coming! What a joke!
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Big Richard Energy
@BiglyRichEnergy
Airplanes are just the longhouse of the sky. Trains are more masculine. I can get up, roam, walk to the cafe car, and even get off the train at any stop I please. And I can manspread.
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Johnny Dollarz
@JohnnyDollarz
If you're traveling within the state, why do you need to check a bag? I posted this on another thread but we went to Mexico City & Oaxaca for spring break 2yr ago and London/Paris for spring break last year and did not check 1 bag in.
2.6K
RL22
@RLtwenty2
Flying is still pretty cheap, if youโ€™re only flying somewhere within state why would you be checking a bag anyway?
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Dennis Hamblin๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿดโ€โ˜ ๏ธ๐ŸŒฒ๐Ÿ#MAGA
@flintaeroinc
You can still build it if you want. Maybe get Gavin Newsom involved, you will get trains to nowhere that cost taxpayers over $100B. Or, maybe hire the same private contract that is doing the line from LA to Las Vegas on their dime. Your choice.
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helan
@he_lawn
Man these corporations ruin everything, we really need to end lobbying and get corporate money out of the gov
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Facts Not Feelings
@VeritasAntequam
Texas is one of the few places in the US where high speed rail may make sense - large population centers far enough apart to make it worth it, but lots of empty, mostly flat land in between.
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Robert Klein
@rklein7777
What??? An excellent affordable public service quashed by the interests of a corporation. No. We're still living the consequences of autos on train service from pre-1950's.
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Morgan Talley
@morganjttalley
Same thing Elon does. Lobbies cities/states to not do a project under the โ€œI can do it better and cheaper. It doesnโ€™t get done neither cheaper or betterโ€ฆ or at all. Example: the Loop in Las Vegas.
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Jordan Railways
@35boat
Dallas & Houston had daily 90-100 mph passenger trains pulled by steam & oil powered steam locomotives 85 years ago (1937-55 SP RR โ€œSunbeamโ€ trains) linking those two cities on the same existing mostly freight-only RR line there today. 21st Century USA railroad progress?
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Bru-D
@BruceLord475516
Southwest is a POS airline. Southwest decided not to fly into Logan Airport in Boston due to gate fees and made all these promises to Providence and stabbed them in the back when Logan caved.
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Orange
@ANormalOrange
Not only was it just a concept, but a full blown proposal by Morrison Knudsen (today AECOM) for construction, Bombardier Transportation for infrastructure, and GEC-Alsthom (today Alstom SA) for rolling stock. All taken down for the promise of free bags foreverโ€ฆ
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ProfessionalReplyGuy
@ReplyGuyLLC
At this point I do not know if American state governments are politically mature enough to handle this kind of infrastructure spending. Brightline and private financing seems like the way forward for now.
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Joey Kinney
@jkinney1987
Another regional impact of SWA - Albuquerque used to have many direct flights due to the Wright Amendment, which SWA opposed. Once that was repealed, many of the routes that came through ABQ were eliminated. Most HS rail plans have routes through here, but we didnโ€™t build them
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Will
@CatalinaAndOleo
We need civic minded people to take the lead on these projects. The business community has neither the foresight nor the impetus to get big projects like this across the finish line.
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Buckhead Gayโ„ข
@SCFLLATXGA
Southwest also tried to kill it within the last 15 years as well. The same rail proposal Amtrak is currently working on was a private enterprise originally.
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6 Months RML
@6MosRML
Good luck trying to eminent domain all those people in Texasโ€ฆ Those people care about their land more than they care about people in cities being able to get from one to anotherโ€ฆ.
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SlavDillworth
@SlavDillworth
Since itโ€™s Texas you have to sit with fat people thigh to thigh on the plane when a more spacious train would leave me un moisoned in their spacious seats.
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Ixรจne
@ixene_dessin
N'idรฉalisez pas le Supertrain : en France, les opรฉrateurs de TGV s'inspirent de plus en plus de l'aviation commerciale. Les bagages sont dรฉsormais rรฉglementรฉs, leur volume et leur nombre limitรฉs, et l'accรจs au train ressemble de plus en plus ร  une procรฉdure d'enregistrement.
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carmel
@bnewsreader24
I mean idk about this history but if they had 30! Years of southwest flying them and no checked bags I wouldnโ€™t say they lied
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Lynn
@genx_lynn
Most light rails quickly turn into transit for cracked out homeless people to get out of the weather, or to travel between parks.
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J Hunt
@dayzofourlivez
Texan here; the people who actually are still actively killing the high speed rail project are the primarily-White land owners who have had this project tied up in court for decades over imminent domain concerns. They also want a % of any retail sales built along the route.
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Penny
@45Penny24
High speed rail is a money loser. Just ask Minnesotans. We have to pay for every person that rides the rails because the ticket cost would be exorbitant. You're dodged a bullet.
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Lyddia
@Lyddia21257906
Many Texans donโ€™t want the HSR! Itโ€™s an investment in outdated infrastructure and an ABUSE of eminent domain. I wonder who is paying the person running this account to promote this propaganda!?
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Dr. Caramello (Expert)
@beefinthehole
If it was anything like California's high speed rail they would have taken 50 years to complete it. Everyone in CA is eagerly awaiting high speed rail from Modesto to Bakersfield. So scenic!
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Erasmus Locke
@marshallwrigh14
We could still get this if we just told Texas the gays and Mexicans stole their trains. Make them hate someone and you can easily control them
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Abolish Zoning
@abolishzoning
Private companies have a fiduciary obligation to lobby in their own interests. Texas leadership has an obligation not to be retarded and not to give in.
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goueeik
@goueeik
Every airline had free checked bags in the 90s. Gen Zs get on here and play as โ€œexpertsโ€ and donโ€™t even know how obvious their ignorance is.
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Chris S
@Chris_S_DB
Imagine being a retard like this schmuck! Nobody wants your stupid rail ideas. Go sell that crap to CA! Oh wait you did!
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E
@e958359348
Can literally anything happen without you guys turning it into complaining about trains that noone wants?
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Patn
@Patn11857681
Self driving pickup trucks would serve more people who have ever lived in Texas. Bags are free there.
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