<story><title>As the U.S. fantasizes, the world builds high speed rail</title><url>http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2017/07/01/a-generational-failure-as-the-u-s-fantasizes-the-rest-of-the-world-builds-a-new-transport-system/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>aerovistae</author><text>Frankly the lack of security frightens me. It&amp;#x27;s only cool til someone stands up on your car and pulls out an AR. Then suddenly it&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;what were they thinking.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Happened in France, fortunately with no casualties...</text></item><item><author>gokhan</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m on a vacation in Italy and just used one this morning from Florence to Bologna with Trenitalia. A lot of positive things:  The ride was 35 minutes long, doesn&amp;#x27;t include any security theater, you can arrive the station 10 minutes before the departure and hop in a couple of minutes, comfortable, roomy, from city center to almost city center, and many more. And the train continued to all the way to Turin, visiting many cities including Milan in 2-3 hours. Cost was 16ish euros, I guess (deducing from a total payment for four people).&lt;p&gt;Doing the same though air travel would add at least a total of 2-3 hours for the whole thing. Don&amp;#x27;t know about the cost comparison but the user satisfaction is there.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>audunw</author><text>And what would the cost&amp;#x2F;benefit analysis of adding security be? Not just the cost of security staff and equipment, but from slowing everyone down and the implicit economic impact on society.&lt;p&gt;Not taking this into account is immoral, because those resources could potentially be spent saving peoples lives in more efficient ways. Terrorism is extremely rare way of dying.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m extremely skeptical that this accounting will even show a benefit for airport security, but I don&amp;#x27;t think airport security is mainly about stopping terrorists. It&amp;#x27;s about controlling what people bring on board the plane, as there&amp;#x27;s a lot of things that could inadvertantly cause trouble on a plane. The same can not be said for trains to the same degree.&lt;p&gt;Also, planes themselves can be used as effective weapons if taken over. Don&amp;#x27;t think that goes for trains, especially where they&amp;#x27;re electrified.</text></comment>
<story><title>As the U.S. fantasizes, the world builds high speed rail</title><url>http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2017/07/01/a-generational-failure-as-the-u-s-fantasizes-the-rest-of-the-world-builds-a-new-transport-system/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>aerovistae</author><text>Frankly the lack of security frightens me. It&amp;#x27;s only cool til someone stands up on your car and pulls out an AR. Then suddenly it&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;what were they thinking.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Happened in France, fortunately with no casualties...</text></item><item><author>gokhan</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m on a vacation in Italy and just used one this morning from Florence to Bologna with Trenitalia. A lot of positive things:  The ride was 35 minutes long, doesn&amp;#x27;t include any security theater, you can arrive the station 10 minutes before the departure and hop in a couple of minutes, comfortable, roomy, from city center to almost city center, and many more. And the train continued to all the way to Turin, visiting many cities including Milan in 2-3 hours. Cost was 16ish euros, I guess (deducing from a total payment for four people).&lt;p&gt;Doing the same though air travel would add at least a total of 2-3 hours for the whole thing. Don&amp;#x27;t know about the cost comparison but the user satisfaction is there.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>imgabe</author><text>&amp;gt; It&amp;#x27;s only cool til someone stands up on your car and pulls out an AR&lt;p&gt;It continues to be cool for the thousands of other trips that day and the millions of other trips afterwards where that doesn&amp;#x27;t happen.&lt;p&gt;Better to build a society that doesn&amp;#x27;t create people who feel the need to mow down a train car full of people than to treat everyone else like a criminal a priori.</text></comment>