Advertising - there's lotsa money in that. The rail system would have the paying pbuttengers. The ad industry wants to sell 'em stuff. Make ad industy put up money for rights to advertise along the right of way.
Not at all. U still have to wait for it, share space with others, can't play radio, smoke, eat, and its still slow, etc.
"This isn't how you get economy" - er, why not? Economy doesn't have a whole lot to do with initial outlay - its how much fuel it consumes while running and other things done on a day to day basis.
Talk to the guys already proposing personal rapid transit. The only difference here is this PRT carries a car or truck. It seems simple enough on the face of it - there's always railcars carrying autos or truck coming into a station. When those cars and trucks drive away, then there are railcars left over ready to carry the next car or truck to its destination.
No, that's what a traditional train gets you, no matter whether it is government or private.
You keep saying inefficient without a shred of logic in the statement. Inefficient how???
It is between, say, Fredericksburg and Washington, DC. It doesn't stop at the commuter rail stations, but it stops at the bigger ones. So, everybody on board has to stop, at places where it does them no good to be stopping.
What extra tracks? Again, look up personal rapid transit. This is all done with 1 set of rails in each direction, and a switching system that will handle individual railcars.
What "extra" fuel - again, you're buttuming, without any logic. Railcars running close together will push the air out of the way so the subsequent railcars don't have to. This is how bicyclists, riding on a path constructed between rails and following a speeding train, can achieve speeds of close to 100 mph - they're not pushing any air, so thus can go fast on very little energy.
The people wanting the system to move their cars and trucks to their desired destination (extremely efficiently...)
Quite practical.
Yep. People will have the money for it when they can shut down their SUV that gets 15 mpg in a world where gas is over $2 a gallon.
People will pay for real utility. A system that will get them and their car within a mile or two of work at high speed on cheap nuclear power without getting chased by the cops, while being able to eat and smoke and drink and play the radio and read the newspaper, and never encounter a traffic backup will be worth paying for.
Dave Head
