Hi Rei, I enjoyed the article. And you made some excellent points about 'pie in the sky' technology. However, I do disagree with the assertion you presented at the beginning of your article, to wit: "The fortune dumped into tech pipe dreams like Hyperloop could have made the New York subway smell like roses, or even made the buses run on time!"
No amount of money will fix the New York Subway because the people operating the subway are corrupt, incompetent, and don't give a damn about the people who ride the subway. They look at the New York subway as a bid piggy bank and as a way to siphon cash to their own ends. The way to fix the New York subway is to fire every single employee and then sell the assets to private operators who have an incentive to provide reliable, comfortable, and safe subway service.
I take your word for it, as I've only been to New York once. However, I think the analogy still holds. Just as it would take an infinite amount of time and money to make the hyperloop concept a reality, so too would cleaning up New York's subway 😅
Also, privatization is very tricky and would require multiple legal changes for it to have any positive effect in NY. The reason it works relatively well in Japan is because of massive government subsidies in terms of cheap loans and free land. The railway companies put up the money to build and run the systems, but most of their profits comes from developing real estate near the stations on land they've received from the government. As shown with California HSR and the Texas corridor, NIMBYs have too much power to make any of this feasible in the US.
Hi Rei, I enjoyed the article. And you made some excellent points about 'pie in the sky' technology. However, I do disagree with the assertion you presented at the beginning of your article, to wit: "The fortune dumped into tech pipe dreams like Hyperloop could have made the New York subway smell like roses, or even made the buses run on time!"
No amount of money will fix the New York Subway because the people operating the subway are corrupt, incompetent, and don't give a damn about the people who ride the subway. They look at the New York subway as a bid piggy bank and as a way to siphon cash to their own ends. The way to fix the New York subway is to fire every single employee and then sell the assets to private operators who have an incentive to provide reliable, comfortable, and safe subway service.
I take your word for it, as I've only been to New York once. However, I think the analogy still holds. Just as it would take an infinite amount of time and money to make the hyperloop concept a reality, so too would cleaning up New York's subway 😅
Also, privatization is very tricky and would require multiple legal changes for it to have any positive effect in NY. The reason it works relatively well in Japan is because of massive government subsidies in terms of cheap loans and free land. The railway companies put up the money to build and run the systems, but most of their profits comes from developing real estate near the stations on land they've received from the government. As shown with California HSR and the Texas corridor, NIMBYs have too much power to make any of this feasible in the US.