New SA rail system still a possibility

No one has ever suggested paranoia before; should I race to the State Hospital and obtain a diagnosis? Am I mistaken or do you agree the LSTAR line could be converted?

@preexisting - Are you a paranoid who believes that entire cities are out to get other cities? Someone who believes that there are nefarious motives behind everything? Someone who, in the absence of actual facts, will willingly jump to every wild conclusion that comes to mind in order to support his ideology? The LSTAR line could not be converted for any $ amount that makes sense; not when there are many other alternatives that would cost less and face much less opposition. Try to change the LSTAR into an HSR line? Be ready for years...decades of opposition and lawsuits, just from the street closures alone!

Are you an LSTAR project type person, or just a shill who watches public discussion boards? You have a highly technical knowledge of rail lines, so I doubt you are a shill. You seem to agree that the LSTAR line could be converted, but think it not cost-effective . . . would that be a correct assessment of your position?

@preexisting - For having attended "a couple of meetings", you know curiously little about the project. Tell me, when exactly did you"ask LSTAR" about high speed rail? Here? Are you simply just casting your question out to the electronic wind and hoping an LSTAR project type person notices it? By the way, it's not "my opinion" that the current alignment cant support 200+ mph speeds. It's been stated several times at those meetings you supposedly attend. Your experience might be that "anything can be built". But why? I could paint my hair orange with blue polka dots, but I don't have any reason to do it. Why would it be in LSTAR's interest to host HSR trains, first of all? Second, why would it be in TxDOT's interest, or any HSR provider's interest, to get entangled in trying to build an exclusive, completely grade separated (which entails closing or building over/under the nearly 140 grade crossings on the LSTAR line), sealed corridor in a highly developed area that would certainly entail years, if not decades, of environmental difficulties, lawsuits, and incredible expense?

I've attended a couple of meetings, and will likely attend a few more. I didn't ask you, though, to guarantee it won't be turned into a high speed line, I asked LSTAR, and thus far they don't appear to be as positive as you. Do you speak for LSTAR? I see in your statement that you do reserve the possibility that the LSTAR can be converted, just in your opinion it can't make the 200 mph+ speeds. In my experience, anything can be built. Whatever geography and other problems have to be surmounted in order to build high speed rail can be surmounted.

Another thought - why don't you attend one of their public meetings, or write to them?

I'll be glad to state it right now - LSTAR will never be part of the high speed rail system. It is a commuter rail line, with alignment geometries that would support at best 110 mph operation, in a very heavily developed area where remediation of those geometries would be expensive, problematic, and likely fraught with environmental challenges and lawsuits. If TxDOT ever does build HSR, it won't be via the LSTAR line if they want a truly "high speed" system.

Happy to know that you know more than me. Now, will LSTAR adopt your comments and publicly state, for the record, that LSTAR will never be part of the high speed rail system, or must the citizens of Texas be content to accept your words on a public discussion board?

You also said, "Your fevered defense of LSTAR makes one wonder why it is impossible for you to concede even the possibility that LSTAR might be converted, at a later date, to a high speed rail line." Well, it might be because I know a LOT more about the project than you do. I don't concede things which are not solidly sourced and backed up by facts. The fact is this - the LSTAR alignment will support up to 110 mph passenger trains, with appropriate (and expensive) improvements. It will never get beyond that, to true HSR range (200+ mph), given the grades and curves on the line.

@preexisting - You said, "All you say is true - high speed rail requires dedicated track with exclusive rights of way. That is precisely the step between "emerging" and actual high speed rail. Given the definition, then, it appears to be likely that what LSTAR will be is a first step towards that high speed rail (or, if not, then there will be multiple rail passenger lines running through the I-35 corridor)." Precisely. Now you're getting it. The TxDOT HSR, which is a long ways off in the future, will serve the larger I-35 corridor, with much longer distances between stations. The LSTAR line will remain a conventional commuter rail line. You next said, "The initial investment, sold as a commuter line, will include grade improvements that will later be improved again to meet the requirement of a high speed rail. At present the existing rail will not support high speed rail, but the right of way, with improvement, will support high speed rail." No. Wrong. The existing right of way will never support true high speed rail. The grades and curves are outside HSR tolerances, and would cost more to remediate for HSR (because of the development around the rail line) than it would to simply acquire a nice, straight, flat right of way somewhere in the I-35 corridor (which, as I mentioned, is not a narrow band, but a 30- to 50-mile swatch). You then said, "It does not seem to be either unreasonable or unlikely that the existing right of way can be improved to support high speed rail." Well, it may not "seem" it to you, but it is indeed both. What information do you have to suggest otherwise? Please detail it. I'd be very interested to see it, since it doesn't exist.