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The high-speed rail train will take 56 minutes to get from Tampa to Orlando if it ever gets going. It's hoped to be up and running by 2015.
According to MapQuest it takes one hour and 29 minutes now by car to drive from Tampa to Orlando, so at first glance it looks like it could save a train passenger 33 minutes of precious time.
The Florida Department of Transportation estimates it will take 2.1 million passengers a year paying $20 a ride for the system to break even, though other experts are skeptical those numbers are achievable. Some might be willing to pay that, Coffee Talk supposes.
But that savings in time assumes the passenger is traveling only from station to station. Unlikely, since people don't live at a station or conduct many business meetings at one.
So, if it takes 15 minutes or so to drive to the station, pay to park, get a ticket, wait for the train, and then need a cab, bus or other transportation to get to the final destination at the other end of the line, how much time is really saved? Can it possibly be worth it to 2.1 million people per year? And that does not consider the time waiting in line for that inevitable full body scan?
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