Slick Vik

On 4/30/2018 at 4:37 PM, wilcal said:

 

Looks like initial fares are right at $300 RT while United is asking $638. 

 

Interjet is also flying the Sukhoi Superjet on the route. They are one of the few north american airlines using the SSJ100 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Superjet_100

 

It holds 93 versus United's 4X daily service with EMB-175 aircraft which have 76 seats. 

 

 

The flight has disappeared 

Interjet starting IAH-BJX June 22. There is huge demand here as United runs 4 flights a day.

On 3/8/2018 at 6:11 PM, Reporter said:

V as in Vik, right? The troll formally known as Slick Vik strikes again. 

 

 

 

 

Nope. I support this project 

Single track is better than no track 

The reason the train stopped is because Lanier and his cronies turned union station into a baseball stadium instead of the train gateway is was planned to become 

This was my uncle's house, so many memories. The last time I stayed there was in 2009 and the power went out. I had fond memories of this place as I liked its modernist style and most importantly my uncle and aunt who lived there. My aunt just turned 80 actually 

Thoughts on this article?

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/How-to-fix-Houston-traffic-Let-s-talk-MaX-Lanes-6832229.php?t=080f5754dc&cmpid=twitter-premium

Houston needs to get past the driving only mentality but it won't as long as powerful lobbies have the ears of local politicians

Beyond that the article is full of lies. Los Angeles, Denver, and Phoenix are actually investing more in rail expansions and LA actually wants to accelerate the process and convert BRT to rail as well.

Saying autonomous taxi will replace public transit is laughable and the biggest irony is the quote that says vehicles that carry more people take vehicles off the road. That's pretty much the definition of rail transit.

False. Anyone who says that the widening of the Katy Freeway did not do anything to alleviate congestion, or more to the point, provide improved mobility for thousands of people every day is either flat-out lying or utterly ignorant. It did not become re-congested because thousands of people every day decided, "oh, hey, there's a nice wide freeway out there, let's go for a drive." It became re-congested mostly because we've added another 2 million or more people since the project started.

Using the logic of the "induced demand" theory, -- we should not have added additional rail cars to serve the redline when the original cars became overcrowded at certain times of day. If we add more rail cars, more people will just use the rail line and it might become crowded again. Maybe we should remove some cars and force people to take alternative forms of transportation or ride on the bus -- We should not add gates at Bush Intercontinental. In fact, I guess we should eliminate some gates and force people to take alternative forms of transportation. More airport capacity encourages more people to fly, thus zero effect on congestion. -- We should not expand the container port at the port of Houston; that will just encourage more people to ship things and the container facilities will just get congested again.

There are many examples of freeway segments closing and no real effects on traffic, (pierce elevated) people simply take alternative routes. And comparing the red line is hilarious. A lot more people fit into one rail car than any automobile. Unfortunately wider freeways simply encourage more driving, especially in a town where for the most part the field is rigged to make driving the only option. You're seeing things from a Houston only perspective.

Yeah, I know it's a fairly well-known theory. That does not reduce its idiocy.

It's not idiotic. In fact removing lanes is an even better idea because this forces people to take alternative forms of transportations or drive on alternative routes. More freeways encourages more people to drive, thus zero effect on congestion.

For the love of God, please tell me our mayor did not really say he thinks adding roadway capacity causes increased congestion. That's even step beyond the idiocy of induced demand.

Fairly well known theory.

OK, and in your apparently extensive commuting experience (Las Vegas doesn't have commuter rail, btw), when you looked out the window did you see a bunch of cars, perhaps?

As an aside, I am incredibly impressed that you have lived and worked and commuted in 10+ major cities around the world. Kudos on your lengthy international career!

No those are all the cities I've taken rail in. Commuting you can limit to Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, Vancouver, and New York. And yes Las Vegas is a monorail.

1. Streetcars had their time and place. That time and place has been more or less over with for about 80 years. "Insert your point here about how your dad took them"? Are you copying some else's talking points?

2. If the good people of LA feel the need to build rail and want to spend the money on it, more power to them. What's your point here?

3. I think the more relevant question is why some rail lovers take cars as a threat to their way of life. There's room for both. Just like it's your option to carry or not carry. Except that the right to carry is enshrined in the Constitution and the right to a train is not. Not sure why you're bringing up gun laws here.

My point is LA is the ultimate car oriented city but even it realized that a strictly car oriented society is not the answer. Houston will find out soon enough, the hard way.

For those wanting a downtown station, is there any real reason other than a variant of these four arguments?

1) Dallas is getting theirs downtown. I feel jealous, and demand we should get parity. They mock us openly, and we deserve better.

2) I have this fantasy of a huge downtown-centric multi-modal transit center that requires it being downtown to work. I expect, or at least hope, that everyone takes public transit, and putting it at the NW Mall site would be conducive to none of that.

3) Despite all signs to the contrary, I really want downtown to be the center of Houston, where the center of town is.

4) Northwest Mall's area is a dump and will never improve or gentrify over time, or with the addition of a new HSR train station. There will also never be any transit over in that direction either.

Not putting it downtown is short sighted. If you can't see that you're blind and/or biased.

Vik, how many days in your life have you commuted to work, or anywhere, by rail?

I take it five days a week. And I've taken it in San Francisco, New York, boston, Mexico City, London, buenos Aires, Rome, Tokyo, Vancouver, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and Dallas.

LA is full of cars. And always will be.

1. It wasn't always like that. In fact it had 1500 miles of streetcars at one point. Insert your point here about how your dad took them.

2. LA also thought it never needed rail, and now is aggressively building it at a pace faster than any city in north america

3. Why do the car lovers always take rail as a threat on their way of life? It reminds me of when the hint of gun control is mentioned to gun owners.

Best practices around the world don't mean shiznit here. That's just the way it is. Cars are here to stay.

Sounds like LA 30 years ago.

It's not necessarily backwards. It's just that we haven't reached that point yet, Slick. "Backwards" would be something along the lines of removing airport rail connections if they were already in existence.

We did remove rail parallel to I-10. Thanks tom delay.

the greyhound doesnt even have a security guard outside the station on the weekdays. Try walking through either sidewalk of the greyhound or the mcdonalds and I guarantee you will either see people doing drugs or you will get harassed like a mofo. they need to move the station or heighten security by both mcdonalds and greyhound.

Just ignore them. That being said if you're white they find you as more of an easy target for whatever reason.

How would it be a massive disaster? Are Hobby and IAH massive disasters? Neither one has light rail service.

Pretty much every out of town person I've spoken to thinks we are a backwards city for not having some kind of rail connection to our airports. They find it stunning, in a bad way.

Then fly. You clearly don't understand the purpose of the train. If you think anyone taking the train to Dallas is only going because the station is close to Downtown or wouldn't take an uber/taxi/limo/driver... you are mistaken my friend.

A lot of people on Dallas forums are ripping the NW mall site.

Nobody from Dallas is going to use this. Ever.

Wrong

This NIMBY likes these ideas...

Far more value to the community than HSR running through.

I doubt all th NIMBYs feel the same way.

I don't understand the obsession with the station being located downtown. From what I've heard, it is supposed to be an alternative to flying, and we all know that downtown isn't the end-all "place to be" as it is other cities (there are many job centers).

Let me phrase it this way, if Dallas wasn't putting theirs downtown, would you even care?

No surprise here. It takes a vision to understand

High speed rail is hardly an improvement (read: not at all a better chocie) over a light rail in a NIMBY sense, and even if it was grade-separated, it's way too curvy and impractical to be used as a rail corridor, which is probably why this leg was abandoned in the first place. From what I've been told, freight trains ran very slowly through the corridor, which I imagine would be HSR as well.

Why not just end it at NW Mall and have car rentals, so that you could go downtown quicker...or the energy corridor...or wherever you please. Not everyone wants to go downtown.

Rent a car to go downtown? That's a very dumb idea

I can see it now.

Hey Buddy. How do I get downtown Houston?

Well, whatcha gotta do is get on this bus here, ya see. Take it to the end. Then get on the University Line headed east, ya see. Get off at Wheeler Station. You writing this down? Then you jump on the Red Line heading to downtown. Simple as that. Won't take you more than two hours and your there.

At one point there was an idea of a line linking northwest transit center downtown I think on the original 2003 referendum.

Oh well. If bringing the rail into downtown isn't economical, we need to push for a inner Katy line to connect the HSR station with downtown and the med center. With the Uptown bus line, the Galleria will have much better connection with this station than either the med center or downtown.

The only question on the station location itself is whether they will finish 290 or finish building the railway first

Even if there is an uptown and university line there still needs to be an east/west line from northwest transit center into downtown, something parallel to university line.

Chinese have offered funding for the California high speed rail and also LA to Vegas. No surprise there. Also, Japan China France and Spain are all trying to get in to the budding high speed rail in Southeast Asia as well, India in particular. They're trying to sell the technology and knowledge.