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Hotel Booking The bullet train is screaming through the countryside at 220 mph. And what a view. Is it Mount Fuji, seen from the Japanese shinkansen train? The Eiffel Tower, seen from the French TGV express? Madrid, from Spain's sleek Talgo? Nope. It's Fresno. Within 10 years, a supertrain could be whisking travelers 400 miles between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2 hours. It's up to California voters.

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Travel Agency Last month, Gov. Gray Davis signed a bill placing a $10 billion rail bond proposal on the November 2004 ballot. Supplemented by hoped-for federal funds, the money would build the first link in a 700-mile,$25 billion system of ultrafast trains run by the state.

speed trains offer the convenience of a quick, quiet ride in modern train cars. They get you from place to place with a maximum of efficiency and comfort and in a minimum of time. You can relax and enjoy conversation or the scenery while traveling great distances. speed trains run on special tracks that keep them quiet, or have special suspension to keep them running smoothly on regular tracks. These trains travel at upwards of 150 miles per hour. They usually run direct routes to major European cities and choice locations. speed trains. speed travel is not covered, rail passes allow discounts on fares. speed trains.

Cheap Hotel A futuristic California train would be a leap beyond the USA's current fastest train. That's the Swedish-built Acela Express run by Amtrak, the nation's passenger railroad. Operating on the Washington, D.C.-New York City-Boston run since 2000, the Acela can reach 150 mph.

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Flight Booking California, the nation's most populous state, boasts the world's sixth-largest economy. A state bullet train would put California on a par with South Korea and Taiwan, which are building networks, and Australia, which is planning one. Japan's 186-mph bullet trains, introduced in 1964, routinely carry 277 million passengers a year. France rolled out the popular TGV trains in 1981 -- one set a 320-mph world speed record between Paris and Le Mans -- and Germany unveiled its ICE trains in 1991. Italy is extending its ultrafast Florence-Rome service to Milan and Naples.

Eurostar Belgium speed trains. The Eurostar travels at speeds of up to 300kmh (186 mph) speed lines. You can cover the distance between London and France in 3 hours. In addition, the Eurostar travels to Brussels, Calais and special ski locations. Eurail passes are not valid on these trains. However, Eurail Pass holders do pay a reduced fare of 75% of full price in 1st class, or 65% in 2nd class.

Travel Agent Forget the diesels

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Hotel Chicago In the USA, Florida might beat California. After Gov. Jeb Bush quashed in 1999 a state partnership with a private company to build a high-speed system, voters overruled him. They amended the state constitution in 2000 to mandate a train with speeds ''in excess of 120 mph.'' Private builders' bids for a first Tampa Bay-Orlando link are due in February. If the Legislature considers the price too high, it could move to repeal the voters' amendment. If the price is right, the first ''all aboard'' could be heard in 2006.

Online Booking Florida and California are far more advanced than other states that are planning rail improvements. A consortium of nine Midwestern states, for example, is trying to coax more speed out of aging tracks shared with freight trains. The goal: raising average passenger-train speeds from 50 mph to 110 mph. To backers of the California and Florida plans, that's not high-speed rail.

Travel Health Insurance The concept that Californians will vote on ''isn't your grandparents' steam train, and it isn't the diesels that we're used to,'' says Rod Diridon, chairman of the California High-Speed Rail Authority. ''This is a 220-mph magic carpet that other industrialized countries have been enjoying for up to 40 years, and it's time for the United States to have the same thing.''

Hotel Reservation A 220-mph train probably was inevitable somewhere in the USA, but California? The state's famed car culture has generated little enthusiasm for trains. Los Angeles has a subway that many residents scarcely know about, much less ride. Amtrak's Coast Starlight, which takes 11 hours and 35 minutes to get from Oakland to Los Angeles, loses money. The trip takes an hour by air.

London Hotel Booking Davis, a Democrat, was a rail skeptic when he took office in 1999.

Discount Travel He called one design for a state train a ''Buck Rogers fantasy'' and trimmed funding for environmental studies. But in a statewide poll that year, 82% of respondents said jammed freeways make new forms of transportation necessary, and 62% said they'd support high-speed rail even with a tax increase.

Orlando Hotel The appeal of rail grew after last year's terrorist attacks, which unnerved air travelers and led to security delays. The attacks ''made people realize that we are too reliant on air travel for trips under 500 miles, and at those distances, high-speed rail is a viable alternative,'' says Michael Rivera, director of governmental affairs for the High Speed Ground Transportation Association, a Washington-based lobbying group.

Booking Agency Backers: A travel option

International Travel Medical Growth makes the high-speed train necessary, says Mehdi Morshed, executive director of the California rail authority. The state's population of 34 million people is expected to exceed 50 million by 2030. As demand for air travel doubles at San Francisco and Los Angeles airports by 2020, Morshed says, ''the sheer number of people there will generate much more congestion and delay than 9/11 did.''

New York Hotel Supporters say the bullet train will give air travelers a competitive option, take cars off roads, cut air pollution and bring needed industry to California's agricultural Central Valley.

Online Travel Booking ''We will get residents from all over California,'' says Harvey Hall, mayor of Bakersfield, 112 miles north of Los Angeles in the Central Valley. ''They can find affordable housing here and commute to downtown Los Angeles in less than an hour.''

Travel Medical Insurance Sealed off from roads and monitored by cameras, the electrified rail corridors would attract 32 million intercity passengers a year by 2020, the state rail authority estimates. One-way business-travel fare between Los Angeles and San Francisco would be $54 in 1999 dollars, beating airlines' projected $135.

Miami Hotel Projected door-to-door travel times in 2020 from Los Angeles to the San Francisco area, the nation's busiest air route: 3 hours, 2 minutes by air; 3 hours, 25 minutes by rail; 6 hours, 54 minutes by car.

Air Deccan Booking Critics: Money not well-spent

Las Vegas Nevada Travel Opponents say that people won't ride the train because air travel still would be faster, and that the billions of dollars would be better spent on more highways and runways. ''Just because you can build it doesn't mean you should,'' says David Levinson, an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of Minnesota.

Las Vegas Nv Hotel California State Sen. Tom McClintock, a Los Angeles Republican, says revenue and ridership projections are ''rosy.'' As for environmental advantages, ''it takes 16,000 kilowatts to move that train 400 miles,'' he says. ''Where's that electricity going to come from when we can't guarantee enough to keep your air conditioner running?''

Hotel Florence Booking Online Even if voters tax themselves with $10 billion in bonds, $4.7 billion more would be needed to complete the Los Angeles-San Francisco link.

Orlando Travel Rail backers hope that Congress will provide the money. If not, California could issue more bonds, repayable from train revenue.

Hilton Hotel Congress will vote next year on spending for rail projects. Money is tight and Amtrak's future is shaky, but a bill with billions for states' high-speed rail has ''a better than 50% chance of passing,'' says Gary Brosch, editor of the University of South Florida's Journal of Public Transportation. ''With California's and Florida's initiatives, we'll both be right up there leading the pack of those asking for federal dollars.''

Booking Delta Com By Martin Kasindorf
USA Today - 10/11/2002

Topic: Trains

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