lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Yes, because sitting at a traffic light outside a strip mall is so much more freeing than walking down a street and engaging with the world.
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Would You Take a Bullet Train from Anaheim to Las Vegas?... Brightline West
- Thread starter TP2000
- Start date
I have taken the train in and out of L.A. I would much rather sit in traffic in my car, controlling my environment, than possibly getting where I'm going faster in a tube full of randos on seats that require bus pants.
But for shorter trips, walking and cycling work great. Very different situations.
John park hopper
Well-Known Member
I don't sit in traffic outside strip malls. I live in the country with very little traffic your example does not hold water
Professortango1
Well-Known Member
My dad never had a driver's license. He took public transport and walked all of his life. I always use public transit while traveling.
Not as long as I can put down the top and row the gears on a mountain road.
The Empress Lilly
Well-Known Member
I have my feet and my rusty old bike for that! =D
But my natural environment is the European city. Had I lived in the US I no doubt would have owned a car. Possibly one bigger than my Euro-sized house.
Professortango1
Well-Known Member
Yeah, I envy those who live in walkable cities. You don't realize how much of a burden a car can be until you go a few weeks without one. It's so freeing.
The Empress Lilly
Well-Known Member
Cars will be like horses. You hold them for fun and leisure, not necessity. Why bother with garages, upkeep, driving, and even parking and walking from a parking place to a front door when you are transported from anywhere to anywhere at the slightest command of your voice?
What’s more, within a few decades, the ravages of a century of car-centric public domain can be undone. Dense cities, safe streets, walkable distances, de-atomization into restored communities.
Los Angeles too, to steer the subject back on track, looked like a European / Asian city once upon a time. LA 1925 had tramways and pavements with pedestrians.
Vegas Disney Fan
Well-Known Member
We love the convenience of subways, trains, and high speed trains while in Europe but even in Europe we’ve noticed we rely heavily on private cars once we’re outside the major metro areas.
If you primarily spend your time in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, etc you can probably get by with only public transit but if you want to visit/live in a smaller town, see the countryside, etc, we find we typically need a car even in Europe.
We’re going to Yellowstone in a couple weeks and there’s no way you could justify public transport to an area like that, 100 miles from any major population in any direction and thousands of square miles of wilderness, the only way to do that is by car.
DarkMetroid567
Well-Known Member
I live in San Francisco. Waymo is great. But a full-on replacement for car transport / transportation in general it is not.
HSR probably needs to happen — don’t really care how or why, but at a certain point push will come to shove
HSR probably needs to happen — don’t really care how or why, but at a certain point push will come to shove
Professortango1
Well-Known Member
Didn't Yosemite go carless?
Vegas Disney Fan
Well-Known Member
HSR feels like a cart before the horse problem, HSR makes a ton of sense between areas with good existing public transit but if the area doesn’t already have good transit you still need a car in the end.
Not sure about Yosemite but Denali in Alaska is, the only vehicles allowed inside the park are park buses (which are just greenish school buses), you still need a car to get to the buses though.
Misted Compass
Well-Known Member
In concerns to CAHSR, there really should have been more focus on connecting Bakersfield and LA, since it's the only section of the route with no existing rail connection. The current initial segment just duplicates the already existing San Joaquins route.
Phroobar
Well-Known Member
Is there a reason anymore to actually visit Las Vegas? They upcharge more than Disney does. "Resort Fees" are more than the advertised room rate. Resort fees give you free local calls and seasonal use of the pool at most resorts. The restaurants are charging "covid service fees" of upwards of 7% on top of your bill before tip. The games have been replaced with automated slots and the few tables now give terrible payouts.
Vegas Disney Fan
Well-Known Member
In hindsight I bet they wish they picked any other starting point, had they built the much shorter San Diego to LA portion, or even the LA to Vegas line, it would probably be open and welcoming riders already.
I think once people experience HSR they’ll see the value in it, assuming they can easily get to their final destination, but with tens of billions of dollars spent, and the projections skyrocketing, the fact that not a single inch of rail is on the ground has doomed CAHSR.
I will be shocked if it ever sees a single passenger.
Vegas Disney Fan
Well-Known Member
I can’t disagree with anything he said, he’s greatly exaggerated how slow we are as a result though, year over year we’re down about 6.5% from last year, which was a record breaking year.
Vegas and Disney have both adopted the discount airline “nickel and dime” model and the reputations of both have suffered greatly from the inevitable horrible customer experience.
I’d say 90% of the complaints we hear as employees in Vegas regard extra fees or new costs for things that were formerly free… sounds familiar doesn’t it?
MoonRakerSCM
Well-Known Member
Speaking of freedom to go where I want and when I want. This past weekend my car took me to the top of Mount Patterson (11,679 ft). Shortened the hike to the top to about ~10 feet or so.
chadwpalm
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
I agree with those that say this train will be more beneficial for SoCal residents going to Vegas as opposed to Vegas residents going to SoCal based on the southern-most terminus.
For me personally, as someone who just moved to the Vegas area and have no more relatives or close friends that live in California anymore, I have no desire to step foot back in that state for the rest of my life for any other reason than to go to Disneyland. I've lived there my entire life and I've seen everything I care to see outside of that.
So strictly speaking in terms of a Disneyland trip, not counting lodging, food, or park tickets (strictly travel costs), with the help of Grok I put together several scenarios for driving, flying, or taking Brightline West.
Without going into all the minutiae and assumptions that were made, the clear winner by a long-shot when it comes to cost is driving. Since my hybrid gets about 50mpg, a round trip door to door is between $40-45 depending on gas prices at the time (plus any wear and tear for a 500 mile round trip).
For flying LAS to SNA is about $100 round trip during a Southwest deal, but gotta add in ride-share to and from airports to home/hotel, so maybe a little over $200 total. Long-term parking at LAS would probably cost more than ride-share, so I won't consider that option.
For Brightline, assuming current estimated prices for fares, the issue is getting from Rancho Cucamonga to Anaheim. Taking ride-share would make it the most expensive option (probably $70 each way from train station to hotel) or taking the Metrolink which would have to transfer in Union Station which would make it the longest trip based on time. Then there's getting from ARTIC to my hotel.
All in all, driving is the best option with occasionally flying if I don't feel like making the drive from time to time, and I'd probably only do the train once for the experience (and eat the cost for ride-share rather than spending 2 more hours on the Metrolink).
For me personally, as someone who just moved to the Vegas area and have no more relatives or close friends that live in California anymore, I have no desire to step foot back in that state for the rest of my life for any other reason than to go to Disneyland. I've lived there my entire life and I've seen everything I care to see outside of that.
So strictly speaking in terms of a Disneyland trip, not counting lodging, food, or park tickets (strictly travel costs), with the help of Grok I put together several scenarios for driving, flying, or taking Brightline West.
Without going into all the minutiae and assumptions that were made, the clear winner by a long-shot when it comes to cost is driving. Since my hybrid gets about 50mpg, a round trip door to door is between $40-45 depending on gas prices at the time (plus any wear and tear for a 500 mile round trip).
For flying LAS to SNA is about $100 round trip during a Southwest deal, but gotta add in ride-share to and from airports to home/hotel, so maybe a little over $200 total. Long-term parking at LAS would probably cost more than ride-share, so I won't consider that option.
For Brightline, assuming current estimated prices for fares, the issue is getting from Rancho Cucamonga to Anaheim. Taking ride-share would make it the most expensive option (probably $70 each way from train station to hotel) or taking the Metrolink which would have to transfer in Union Station which would make it the longest trip based on time. Then there's getting from ARTIC to my hotel.
All in all, driving is the best option with occasionally flying if I don't feel like making the drive from time to time, and I'd probably only do the train once for the experience (and eat the cost for ride-share rather than spending 2 more hours on the Metrolink).
DarkMetroid567
Well-Known Member
I’m a Vegas native and 90% of our vacations in my childhood were California-focused. Some Utah! But mostly California. A lot of my friends who are still based in Vegas are forced to CA for job/business reasons, as we don’t really have a real professional market in Vegas. So there are some use cases!
All super valid. I’m just so sick of that 4 hour drive that I’ll gladly pay the extra cost to not have to drive. Hypothetical HSR makes that even easier.
TrainsOfDisney
Well-Known Member
This was tricky…. As someone who has used the Anaheim station for many years on my visits to Disneyland - Anaheim needed a new and updated station. So what is the waste of tax money…. Build a station for now? Or go ahead and build what you will need when the high speed happens, which at the time, seemed like a sure thing.
I’m with you! Never had one myself.
Or Alaska Railroad!