Technology

[Liquid Charlie]

I see the discussion about pilotless aircraft. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. They already have that technology. As it stands now a little flawed but flights are being done by the US military. They have lost a couple but the freight didn't seem to mind. I think in air travel the number of aircraft in the air will be greatly reduced and long haul only and short haul will be replaced by ground transportation. When you think one could travel from Toronto to Montreal in less than half the time using ground travel as opposed to flying it makes total sense. Air travel will morph into low orbit long haul and you will be taking a train for anything continental. Just some thoughts ----  >:D

[Trey Kule]

If you look at the efficiency, and quality of travel of high speed trains in Chins, and the convoluted mess that is air travel requiring checking in hours before, and having airports far from cities, trains are definitely the winner.


Years ago, there was a high speed train planned between Edmonton and Calgary.  One of the reasons it did not go ahead was because the airlines wanted to operate it. 


But high speed trains will eventually become the method of mass short haul transport once some of our population densities increase.

[Slick Goodlin]

[quote author=Trey Kule link=topic=6905.msg18693#msg18693 date=1502638298]
If you look at the efficiency, and quality of travel of high speed trains in Chins, and the convoluted mess that is air travel requiring checking in hours before, and having airports far from cities, trains are definitely the winner.
[/quote]
...until some tool blows one up.

[Liquid Charlie]

ya I guess the glass is half m/t but when I say high speed I mean 700 mph ground transport not just a high speed train. We will be taking the vacuum tube. It's achievable along the ground but short haul aircraft will always have a block speed of less than 300 kts -- do the math and it's a no brainer. Security will be a non issue and completely automated by that time. You will have a computer chip up you ass along with everyone else on the planet. I might even witness the day air travel peaks to saturation and then starts to decline, then again maybe not but it will happen. The dream liner will go the way of the [font=Verdana][size=2px]Lockheed[/size][/font] 18 and DC3


[img width=500 height=271]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OCvN39HOYWY/V ... ropped.jpg[/img]

[mmm...bacon]

I can see some high speed trains between some city pairs (LA & SanFran, YEG/YYC, YYZ/YUL) but Calgary to Vancouver?! Never - the infrastructure will cost billions, compared to aeroplanes which are already here..

[Liquid Charlie]

Well I have learned one should never say never and what would stop them from building a surface and elevated system ( we are talking likely 50 to 100 years in the future) but if flying is to say that means still an hour + trip when the same distance is covered in half the time on the surface for same length and people would whine about flying being so slow -- lol --  . I'm sure that when the rail was first built there were also people who said it couldn't be done.  >:D

[David MacRay]

Bacon is right. Just because the French can tunnel through mountains does not mean Canada can afford to hire them to do it here. Justin has other super important things to spend our great grandchildren's taxes on.

[Liquid Charlie]

I can see you guys are no sci-fi to reality guys -- lmao -- justin will be dead by the time this happens but the one fact remains. The skies as we know them today will not exist either. There will be far fewer aircraft in the air, few cars in the cities and burning carbon fuels will be for hobbyists who are referbing old iron at crazy prices. Likely diesel engines since anyone can product biodiesel at home. This rock will be getting very crowded.

[David MacRay]

I agree with you mostly. There will certainly be crowded places but I think there will also still be lots of places that will be fairly empty.

Like now if you are in a big city there are already too many people on the planet. If you are in Nunavut it might not seem as bad.

I think Calgary is over populated but I have been to Cairo, It turns out you can fit a lot more people in a city than I would prefer. I must admit I enjoyed visiting. There is a pretty small area in the region that can grow food. Some of the folks there are so ignorant of that fact, they build housing on growing dirt instead of on the hard pack a few miles away.

That sort of thing will sometimes work to correct overpopulation.

[Liquid Charlie]

Don't have to preach to a farm boy - When you look at Canada has to be one of the strangest countries in the world when you look at where the vast majority of the population lives. The Golden Horseshoe of Ontario, what a waste. Some of the world's most productive farmland and it's being removed from the food production chain at a very alarming rate. Exactly, want to move to Canada send people north, although that isn't a great idea either. I like my pristine part of the world.