jackie21love

Does the 300,000 include bus? Per Wikipedia Beijing Subway is ranked the #1 ridership averaged 9.3 millions daily (bus not included)… I think Beijing population is roughly 3 times of greater Houston area. We still have a long way to go to make all parties aware the importance of subway/light rails to city development.

http://www.houstongovnewsroom.org/go/doc/2155/2495706/

Interesting. I don't think there is an aircraft that can do IAH-BOM nonstop (although the language used was "direct"). I wonder if Diaz might seek 5th freedoms, for a routing such as IAH-MAD-BOM. Get a couple of cities on the wishlist off in one swoop.

His track record has been very good. Maybe he just wants a bigger challenge at this point.

I don't know the exact number, but I guess should be 3 hours longer than dubai? May Be a little shorter than New York to Singapore? Again, if it is true I believe it is NOT carried by United…

I've been seeing dates float around pointing to 2020? Not too sure.

It is a blessing if they could finish it within 10 years…

the 3-story apartments looks so cheap...

For long haul flights, i'd rather take 787 with stopover than other direct flight.

Why does it have to be TCR? Why can't it be a developer that they are going to work with or some sort of real estate firm they will work with and not TCR outright? Thats a possibility too.

Good point.

As United has 17 787s they are FINNALY using 767s to replace the 757s on trans-Atlantic flights.  To BCN, TXL, HAM, MAD from EWR.  At the end of the year United will have 25 787s so they can use the 767s for other routes.  Very strange since Delta Airlines is cutting International travel due to the strong $.

This is good. I took United's 757 from SFO to Hawaii some months ago and that's my worst experience ever...

BusinessWeek posted an article about the next generation of Japanese bullet trains using MagLev tecnology, currently under construction between Tokyo and Nagoya scheduled for operation in 2027

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-21/world-s-fastest-train-records-speed-of-603-kilometers-per-hour

 

"Japan is looking for an overseas customer for maglev technology as the country works toward opening its first major line. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said the government may provide financing to support Central Japan Railway Co.’s bid to provide trains for a Washington-Baltimore line."

 

The article says the 286-kilometer (179 mile) Tokyo-Nagoya route has a cost of $47 billion to build. That cost is probably easily justified by the huge customer base for that route. Trains will run at 500 km/h (313 mph). The conventional train proposed for Houston-Dallas is reported to run at 200 mph.

Scaling the Tokyo-Nagoya cost to the Houston-Dallas distance, it is around $63 billion. Surely that cost is vastly more than the Houston-Dallas corridor could support. But if Houston-Dallas moves forward, it would be a bummer to some other place in the U.S. get maglev.

I agree High Speed Maglev is way too much expensive. I think currently the only operating High Speed Maglev is a 20 miles airport connector in Shanghai. Many new proposals have been made in the past decade but the huge cost is surely a big issue, especially a line connecting two cities. If we could have it by any chance I think the cost should be lower considering the easy construction in the corridor... 

Even IF they opted to build a new airport, where in the heck would you put something that size? IAH is already inconvenient for most people who live IN Houston or God forbid Sugar Land or Clear Lake or Galveston. The amount of property you would need along with good ample transportation to get there would either push the new airport way out of town or be shrunk down considerably to something like San Diego, Philadelphia or Reagan.

From city growth perspective, you have to built new airport far away from city center, just like London, Paris, Moscow, Taipei, Kuala Lumper and Shanghai, or you are lucky enough to have an island for it, like Seoul and Hong Kong. Ideally, a rail connecting Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston with a stop at IAH and DFW will be so great (just like Frankfurt), but that will never come true. Let's forget about the new airport which will not come realistic in at least 50 years. Even if government have enough money to do it, I'd rather they spend it to improve local road conditions in the loop, which is more important than my Houston pride.

The first thought come to me is we need another boom to fill all these parking lots!

The Wikipedia police are Nazis and won't let you update it if there's not an exact starting date. People tried about 5 times the other day when it was announced and they kept erasing it and leaving more and more angry comments in the page history until they locked the page. Same thing happened with Southwest when they announced the international destinations from

Hobby to start in October before they officially announced the 15th. It's a stupid rule but they're incredibly strict about it. Those people take themselves way too seriously.

I am OK to get it protected if there is someone to organize the page properly. The history part is just too messy...

--There is no reason to even think of building a new airport.

--They considered building a new International Terminal completely separate from the current terminal complex but most of the airlines hated the idea.  The idea was not dismissed because of a lack of money.

--We are not doing a renovation of Terminal D.  The new Terminal D will be an entirely new building. The existing Terminal D will be completely demolished.

--There is really nothing at all wrong with the footprint design of IAH.

Well if you say IAH now could still handle flights well then I have no problem with that. But if you travel from Amsterdam, Dubai, and Beijing to Houston you will surely feel shame of it. Terminal E is good, but all other terminals are not even close to "modern". I said we deserve a new airport not because IAH is not large enough to handle flight, but because we deserve something better.

I know the terminal D plan and I should not use the word renovation. I meant to say they have to build a new terminal in the same place where now Terminal D stands at, and at the same time you cannot completely shut off the terminal. This makes the project long and complicated. IAH's footprint is bad for sure. parallel concourses and satellite piers have proved their efficiency in lots of newly built airport around the world.

I was watching the State of the Airport speech address today on fly2houston.com and Mr. Diaz mentioned that demolition of Terminal D wouldn't even begin until 2016 and be finished "hopefully" by 2020. Am I missing something here? 4 or 5 years to build one terminal? You can build a 100 story highrise in less time. Why so long for a simple terminal building?

I really hope this terminal is as modern and 'Texas' as they make it out to be. What we have now is an embarrassment to the city and the state---especially compared to DFW and Atlanta.

That is because we don't have enough money to build a new airport or build a new terminal in another place (which we should do). When you need more space for international flight but not enough fund, you have to do the renovation, which will last longer time. Again, the footprint design of IAH is really bad.

I have never seen any particular reason why profitability should be a consideration for railroads, airports, roads, fire departments or other any infrastructure.  Why should railroads be held to a standard of private ownership and profitability that isn't applied to other infrastructure?  Infrastructure is what taxes are for.  

We spent too much tax money on arguing what should be spent on. Those strongly oppose rails just like people without kids saying no, use tax for school is a waste of money, and people never take flights saying no, you should not spend my tax on airport improvement... The thing is as long as government spend money on something not related to their life, they will object. And they will never accept new stuff not familiar to them. They will say, yes i know HSR does a good job in Japan, Europe and China, but we are in the US, we don't need it! Those people are just so reluctant to do any changes in life. In Houston we have a world record of the widest freeway (26 lanes in belt 8 and I-10 intersection, counting HOV, changing ramp, and frontage road), but it is still like a parking lot every workday 5pm. We used to be very proud of Interstate Highway System, but decades passed, it is no longer a good system comparing to highways in China and Europe, not to mention small countries like Japan. 

How do you count 21 flag carriers??? 

Aeromexico, Air Canada, Air China, Air France, Air New Zealand, ANA, Avianca, British Airways, Emirates, KLM, Korean Air, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines count for flag carriers, total at 15. All others like EVA, Interjet, Volaris, West Jet and others are clearly not. Though EVA has long haul flight, but Taiwan's flag carrier is China Airlines, just like Asiana vs Korean Air, China Estern vs Air China.

But anyway, 15 is a number we should be proud of. 

Actually airlines are not profitable.  They only survive thanks to public subsidies (government subsidies for the airplane manufacturers, government subsidies for the airports, and investor and creditor subsidies through bankruptcies).

 

Right now they are trying to hold railroads to a higher standard, one without subsidy.  Though actually regardless of what happens, I'm sure the Japanese will be subsidizing it in some form or another.

Exactly. United receives billions from Federal to keep servicing small airports. It is not rare that you take a flight with less passengers than staffs. I used to take a regional jet from Cleveland to Toronto in early morning with only 2 passengers filling the 50 seats regional jet. (I think CLE and YYZ are not "small" airports anyway)

Great. This is a "truly" international destination to be proud of, comparing new routes to cities in Mexico have been served by United already, and seasonally chartered route to the Bahamas (probably we will not see it the next year).

I am a nerd. I love knowing a building's true height. There are so few in Houston listed correctly compared to other places so post on, Cloud!

Hey nerd, how many decimal places are you caring about?

DFW has Qantas. Jealous

And their website is looking much better than fly2houston.com

I don't know but how about the wells fargo and chase on the corner of San Felipe? Do they have really a long lease or own the land? Is there any development plan on those site? Those bank branches should only take half a floor of a tower... It is really not a good fit to see those country style banks and CVS in galleria...

I would think that a non-stop IAH to Shanghai would be a big seller for them.

More international flights will be good!

Not really. Having the 2nd flight to PVG from LAX or SFO will have a higher chance. Profitability of China routes is not as high as you think, except from west coast. Delta had ATL PVG route twice in history but proved to be a loss. AA was aggressive in China market last year in their DFW hub, which also makes new Asia routes out of IAH less possible.

I'm hoping IAH to Madrid! So Bad!

I think Iberia probably has a better chance…

United renewed there leases with the COH and will begin construction of the new North Terminal C.  This to make room for the new International Terminal  D.  Also redesign North Terminal B, construction will start May 11th.  United is also added more Latin America flights this summer.  Another flight to LIM, UIO and SAL.   

Oh... I wished they could add one more route to Europe...

I really want to know who made the decision to built downtown roads with 45 degree...

i love the idea of a east side N/S line, though i dont know that it makes sense to have it go past the Hardy Yards. maybe as a starting point for commuter rail out to IAH along the hardy tollroad and downtown connector.

It would be great for Houston to add any lines in anywhere.