High Speed Rail?

It's fall break and I'm back in Calhoun County. It's good to be back, but for midterms coming up next week, I need to study too.

Plus, I think I have to get a new coffee maker. This is what happened two days ago...

I fixed it right away, but it fell apart again... I think it's over three years old and it's about time to get a new one. I could get a replacement decanter, but shipment make it more expensive than just getting a new unit.

New coffeemaker would be GE's. It looks cool, and by this happened, I'm not sure if Mr. Coffee is reliable.

Anyway, those things are something that I worry about lately.

So, maybe I wrote this before, but I think Alabama is in need of reliable high speed rail network. Before moving to Birmingham and starting classes at UAB, I had to make several trips between Jacksonville, AL and Birmingham. It's about an hour and half drive for one way.

One time for my TB skin test, I drove twice in three days to Birmingham for TB skin test, which is required immunization at UAB.

For me, trip with ride for over an hour should be done for something at least taking a half day to get done or a huge event. Like, Six Flags or football/baseball game. It's not for something I can finish in like an hour.

Especially when you have to drive. I like to drive but one and half hour drive and traffic in Birmingham are energy-consuming and very tiring.

Imagine that a high speed rail run where I-20 currently runs, connecting Atlanta and Dallas, capable to run around 200 miles per hour. I only have to drive to Anniston/Oxford to get on the train. It's about 60 miles between Oxford and Birmingham. Even if it stops at Lincoln, Pell City and Leeds, it won't take even an hour.

It's about 20-30 minutes drive from Jacksonville to Oxford. You can reach to UAB campus in 10 minutes from downtown of Birmingham.

So I guess it would be total of about an hour or a little more. Plus, you don't have to drive all the way.

It would be even better if there is inter-city rails. If you're coming back from Birmingham, you can get of the train at Oxford, and transfer to a train that run between Talladega and Fort Payne via Calhoun County. Or it can be between Auburn and Fort Payne. But anyway, in this case, you change to the train bound for Jacksonville and just get off the train at station in Jacksonville and ask somebody to pick me up. Or if I drive and park at the station, then I only have to drive short distance to get back to my residence.

Again, I do like to drive. It would be even better if I can get stick shift. But not so much when you have to drive a long distance. I want rather ride a train for about an hour and read a book or something.

Well, I haven't really driven back to Jacksonville over past three weeks, so I just thought about it.