the maglev in the pic is Shanghai. Runs from the city to the airport at Pudong. It is finally seeing some use, but it mostly is a very expensive bragging right. 8 minutes from the station to airport. But the station isn't that convenient...there is a subway station but most travelers don't want to haul their bags on the subway. A lot easier (and cheaper) to take a bus from the airport to town. But it sure is cool...and if you're willing to heft your bags around (like I am), it is a damn fast trip.

Amazing train ride from Tokyo to Northern tip of Japan. The most impressive part was how much tunneling they did to support the bullet train. At 150+mph the train was in some tunnels for 15++ minutes as it went under entire mountain ranges. Incredible effort. Another plus is the food on board is excellent and they also serve wine/beer. Like Europe you can set your watch to the arrivals and departures.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1145387173.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1145387181.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1145387188.jpg

We need good mass transit like we need a good educational system. Throwing money around, unions and pork barrel politics do not work. Beside, most of the USA built in the last 50 years is too spread out for any workable mass transit. (BTW- I commute by subway and walking.)

I'm not so much pro-mass transit as I used to be. When I first moved to DC, riding the Metro was a pretty painless experience. It wasn't cheap, but it wasn't crowded and it was efficient. Now this new silly term "smart growth" means counties want to build everything within walking distance of a Metro. Metro is already getting overcrowded, they raise the prices every 6 mos., service gets worse by the week and now they want to add thousands of new riders by building condos near every station. It SUCKS! And it's also a huge terrorist target. WHile riding home on 9/11 our train got stuck under the Potomac between Foggy Bottom and Rosslyn. It was not fun. A backpack bomb in an underwater tunnel would be devastating and it's a matter of when, not if. Can't wait to get out of here.

I can't even imagine. I'd have used the emergency exit. Even the thought is making me twitchy now.

Rick, you gotta try slugging. :) Talk about taking your life into someone else's random hands. LOL

Emergency exit ain't gonna do anything at all for you when you're under water. The pressure from an explosion there would destroy everything.

You're really screwing my mind up for the commute home tonight, RL. Thanks a lot! :mad:

No, just to get the hell out of the train instead of waiting with a bunch of other panicky people. If you die, you die either way.

I don't know what scares me more - riding the train or dodging the cell phone-chatting, SUV-driving soccer moms on the way home from the Metro station. Commuting sucks no matter how you cut it.

Yep.

It's too bad train travel is expensive in the US. I was going to try to swing up to NYC for a weekend on my upcoming trip to DC. Invited my buddy and his wife, but upon looking at the cost, it would be about the same or less to fly!

I would really like it if we had a better railroad infrastructure, and if travel by rail wasn't too costly. I'd take a train from here to DC if I could!

Fray, as good as the trains in Europe are, they ain't cheap either. It's often cheaper to fly there also. I want to go to NYC this weekend and it's either drive to my folks in NJ and then take a bus, or venture into NYC in my own car and get raped on parking and more tolls. Train would be around $200 round trip, which makes driving far cheaper.

Before the freeways came about in force, Los Angeles had the largest, fastest and most complex rail system in the world.

As for the magnetic train between LA and LV, it'd be great to see. Especially with a potential rise in oil to $100 a barrel, I'm not so sure the skies will be free much longer.

N scale rocks. However, I'd like to try Z scale at some point. SmileWavy

I've ridden both the Shanghai Maglev and the Shinkansen - along with the TGV. Would like to give the Eurostar a try.

Todd's right about the Shanghai airport Maglev. But it's definitely worth a ride to say, "I rode the Shanghai Maglev." I sent an email to my son from the train saying something like "I'm going over 250mph right now."

two things went through my mind:

if something went wrong, it would be ugly

an F1 car goes almost this fast, then brakes to 50kph in about a second

Robert Moses singelhandedly doomed efficient mass transit..

that is all, Ive done my OT for the next few years

I have N scale too . Plus I'm in the middle of laying out out my
G-scale layout in my backyard.

Another "cheap" hobby of mine..:rolleyes:

Tim - you do mean the "Robert Moses Causeway , right?"

Why are they called "causeway," anyway? What's the cause? Is their a certain way causes move?

Be sure to post photos. I've seen G-scale locomotives that cost as much as a set of Fuch wheels. :eek:

My G locos only cost me about $50. Just ask my wife.:p :D