Rusty,
I've always liked the SHS S-trax, I really wish it was more available. Also, I've now had the opportunity to get some serious run time on a fastrack loop and I would say that it is a good choice, given that it is readily available and very inexpensive compared to S-Trax. I can still remember when O scale fastrack was first introduced and how it was derided by many scale enthusiasts. To this day I am amazed at just how popular it is and how many, myself included, scale modelers have some. Granted, they do not use it on their primary layout, but you simply cannot beat it for its usefullness and how "fast" you can get set up and have trains running on it. In O scale you can have curves all the way out to 072 & 084, remote turnouts that match curves up to 072, 1/2 sections, long sections and some pretty nice looking intgrated road crossing sections. If Lionel brings something similar to S, I would say that it is a very solid bet that Lionel will probably dominate this segment of the market in the next couple of years.