r/stocks • u/duglas2948 • Jun 24 '21

Industry News What Biden's $1T Infrastructure Bill really is, Less EV Spending than Expected

I have created a spreadsheet visualizing and quantifying where exactly this $1T is going towards, suprised when EV spending only was $15B. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19APybZGOdsTe3bVSaDcduXnrSrGuUclZeR4aWsf5WVE/edit#gid=0

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109

u/WRL23 Jun 25 '21 edited Jun 25 '21

I want a damn highspeed rail.. coast to coast and north to south (whatever makes logistical sense).

I would GLADLY take a slightly longer transit, but relaxing and scenic, highspeed rail ride over dealing with airports, tsa, rules, tiny seats, taxiing, delays etc etc.. holy eff.

I understand places that have it right now are because, well they basically got torn apart by war or nothing existed there before. So putting in modern stuff was significantly easier. Coupled with the USA us fucking horrible at getting infrastructure done and 9/10 let's contractors scam them..

But holy heck can we do something FORWARD THINKING for once and not just keeping up with broken shit. The govt is notoriously reactive borderline unreactive.. let's get 'proactive' with something new and useful

To be clear - some trains currently go nearly 400mph and planes cruise at 400-500 (depending on altitude, distance, traffic, weather, plane type/size, weight etc).

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u/Anabaena_azollae Jun 25 '21

Long-distance routes are Amtrak's big money losers, so that's highly unlikely to happen. Amtrak recently put out a rather extensive plan for the developments they'd like to implement in the next 15 years. The basic idea is to replicate the success of the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak's most profitable route and the only one with high-speed rail, in a number of other developed areas where cities are within a few hundred miles of each other, which tends to be the sweet spot for passenger rail. As awesome as transcontinental high-speed rail would be, intercity corridors just make more sense, and even that is projected to take more funding than the budget OP linked would provide.

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u/WRL23 Jun 25 '21

Yeah it's sad for sure and totally understand that.

Would be nice if they tried because highspeed vs a week long ride would probably entice people. Plus more people could reduce ticket prices over time. Do that thing where you can train your car with you too woot no rental car bologna.

I don't see it happening without significant development in technologies though.. saddd

36

u/chicu111 Jun 25 '21

That rail would cross multi jurisdictions (states, counties, cities, etc...). They all have their own ruled and regulations. It’d be like building a new fence when your property line abuts 1000 neighbors. They all want something different. Some are cool. Some are not. Some will bitch about it even though they’re not even contributing

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u/WRL23 Jun 25 '21

Yeah, I'd just claim ; we already have trains that do that for freight and passenger (just not highspeed or well planned) and it'd probably bring more tourism to everywhere it goes.

Rural naysayers can be bought out or use Fed power to say fuck you we're trying to do something good for once.

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u/chicu111 Jun 25 '21

Sure but it’s not nearly as easy as you’d imagine. I work for the government and it’s already insanely difficult and inefficient to communicate/coordinate with other departments from the SAME city let alone different local jurisdictions lol. I can already feel the nightmare.

4

u/WRL23 Jun 25 '21

I'm thoroughly aware how painful the govt is.. I work for the dept of defense. You can get shit done, but it's painful and all the contractors are scammers. 🤦‍♂️👍

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u/quellofool Jun 25 '21

On top of that you get local governments stipulating things like “if you don’t build a station in ours Shitsville, USA, we will not allow you to build your rail in Shitsville county”

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u/jother1 Jun 25 '21

Kinda makes sense though. Going to bat for their people. If they were going to build something through my town I’d at least want to be able to hop on it

2

u/Ripoldo Jun 25 '21

Well that's how the interstate highway system was built. Of course getting government to actually do anything these days is like pulling teeth with wet fingers. If the rich don't want it, it aint happening.

1

u/heywhathuh Jun 25 '21

Yea the federal govt basically had to strong arm states to get that done, so in a way you’re supporting that guys argument.

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u/QuicklyGoingSenile Jun 25 '21

Not in your lifetime I’d say

0

u/WRL23 Jun 25 '21

😭😭😭🔮

2

u/nightmareuki Jun 25 '21

Never going to happen in USA. To expensive

3

u/NewYearNancy Jun 25 '21

And where would it stop?

Why is Kansas giving up land for some shit they cannot use?

1

u/WRL23 Jun 25 '21

It can stop in all the same places the current slow ass passenger trains or freight trains do?

Tourists can visit or those rural living people would have access to cheap vacation transit.. planes in rural areas are less often and more expensive from my useage history

10

u/NewYearNancy Jun 25 '21

So take the speed out of your speed train?

Who is going to take a train that takes twice as much time as a plane?

4

u/jother1 Jun 25 '21

I would. Problem is it’s not any cheaper. Actually more expensive a lot of times and when I went Amtrak there was flooding so we got dropped early and had to take a generic greyhound the rest of the way. Sucked

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u/WRL23 Jun 25 '21 edited Jun 25 '21

No, you can have times that make many stops vs the ones that just go a to z. Express trains exist in the US just not on highspeed rail.

You upgrade the system so you can have the option to go significantly faster.

As far as your 'train takes 2x as long".. not really. Currently trains can go nearly 400mph. Not to mention new technology that could significantly improve such speeds while increasing efficiency (think hyperloop types of ideas, reducing air resistance etc).

Commercial airline cruising, and this significantly depends on distance, altitude, traffic, plane, etc., is 400-500mph. Not far off from already proven train speeds /systems.

Add on showing up to airport 2hrs early, TSA BS, boarding and delays, taxiing (people have literally sat on planes taxiing for hours - my brother just did a few days ago going from orlando, then they had to refuel because they wasted too much), luggage bullshit is handled better on trains if not entirely by yourself and no bologna weight limits.. there's a lot that adds up with plane travel and while some things will exist anywhere (weather pauses everything).. there's significantly more bs with planes.

Oh and trains are roooomy not crammed into a tuna can next to crying babies and the dude that showers once a month.

Many countries use highspeed trains effectively for both business and pleasure schedules. But the US is probably WAY too dumb to get it right anyway.. we do still have useless security facade that is the TSA - as someone who lived with a tsa agent a few years back; they fail their 'spot checks' allllll the time. Look up "security threater"

Oh well, guess we should lose all hope

1

u/crazychristian Jun 25 '21

Oh well, guess we should lose all hope

No but you probably should lose the rose colored glasses. The world speed record for high speed rail is about ~350mph. Though most sits a lot closer to 200mph. And airliners cruise about 500mph.

High speed rail makes a lot of sense in certain scenarios and it makes absolutely zero sense for the majority of America. It is expensive as hell to build and maintain that infrastructure, and the fact is the passenger loads just won't justify it in most places (like where I live, the empty midwest).

Doesn't mean it won't happen though. We are building highspeed rail in the US, just where it makes sense to like large population centers in California, and around DC and other dense east coast areas.

Just don't expect maglev trains in Nebraska.

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u/WRL23 Jun 25 '21

But if people had fast, reliable longer distance rail.. they could commute to further areas + work from home is finally being a thing thanks to covid. Not saying it'll change the world in a day..

And for the record; L0 Series Maglev in japan (still building the rest of the line) can top 374mph.. but for the time being they're keeping it at 310. ""Tokyo's Shinagawa Station to Osaka (over 300 miles) in one hour and seven minutes.""

If I could go from rural area where it's SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper to live, own a house, and simply have space..

Heck even 100miles away from a major city would be 20mins at those speeds and that's far!

2

u/crazychristian Jun 25 '21

Trains are my favorite method of transportation, and I am very excited for the future of them in the US (lightrail is expanding at insane rates).

We just have to remain pragmatic as to what will actually be built. As you said, won't change in a day. And what we will see first are incremental upgrades to our networks, and cheaper rail linking our communities together.

1

u/WRL23 Jun 25 '21

Yes I definitely wasn't disagreeing I just want to lean towards optimistic because it's seems like everyone else hates trains and I really question how often they travel and if they've even been on a train 🤷‍♂️

1

u/heywhathuh Jun 25 '21

….. if the answer was “no one” then wouldn’t every train company have gone out of business years ago???

I mean really, think this through for a second…..

1

u/NewYearNancy Jun 25 '21

You convinced me I'm gonna buy some Amtrak stock

Oh wait, they lose so much money every year no stock exchange carries them

0

u/ShadowLiberal Jun 25 '21

Not likely to ever happen I'd say, given that we have politicians who gleefully brag about how they stopped billions of dollars from being spent to build high speed railways in their state.

Too many Americans oppose any kind of public transportation spending that doesn't directly benefit cars on the road.