High-Speed Rail to Nowhere
Posted by Fred Jandt
Mass Transit magazine editor
As I write this it’s been a few hours since the President announced his high-speed rail vision for the United States. Long enough time for stories to fill up the Internet, but I haven’t had a chance to hear the pundits come out of their holes and bash the plan or put it up on an unreachable pedestal. As my brother is fond of saying, I’m approaching this with cautious optimism. I just hope President Obama knows what he’s getting himself into.
Let me be clear on one point. I live in the Midwest. And because of this — among other reasons — I want a high-speed rail network. I want it desperately. I’ve ridden the trains in other countries. I know how convenient they — not can be — are. I also know that these countries sink a considerable amount of money into them.
Note that last sentence: present tense.
I applaud President Obama for having the vision, wherewithal and passion to make this happen. The investment of $8 billion this year and another $5 billion over the next five years will definitely get a high-speed rail network bristling with activity. And with public-private partnerships, we could see trains running on these lines in less than a decade.
But then what?
We built it. They came. Now who’s going to run those high-speed rail corridors? The $13 billion is a nice down payment to get the system built, but what about the operating costs. Make no mistake; this is a public transportation system. We can call it a national high-speed rail network and make allusions to the Interstate Highway System, but it is still public transit.
And where are our public transit systems these days? Washington, D.C.? Atlanta? Boston? New York? Seattle? San Francisco? San Diego? Chicago? Los Angeles? Dallas? All of these systems and more are facing major operating budget shortfalls in the next year. Most of them are considering (possibly drastic) service cuts and fare increases. The recent stimulus funds have helped a little, but public transit is still choking on its own success.
The creation of the high-speed rail network isn’t the only thing that needs to be planned and funded. Its management and operation needs to be as well — which may just be the most difficult part. Are individual corridors going to fall under the purview of the local public transit authorities? Is it going to the state DOTs? Or are these going to be part of Amtrak? This is the true question that needs to be answered when it comes to a high-speed rail network.
I want high-speed rail. I think it’s a wonderful idea. I think it will not only be good for the environment, but also for the Interstate System, the airline industry and public transportation agencies in particular. But consider me cautiously optimistic until I here just how it’s going to be operated.
Check out Mass Transit’s new Top 40 Under 40 promotion on our Web site. We’re looking to recognize transit’s best and brightest under the age of 40 in an upcoming issue. Click on the link and you can read more about it and nominate yourself or any of your colleagues.
Thanks for reading the MT Position updated every Friday,
Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com
Check out our LinkedIn page!
April 17th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Where high speed rail transit is really needed is within highly developed urban areas and running it all across the country is a huge waste of money and resources.
As an example, California’s proposed high speed rail between San Francisco and Los Angeles won’t do anything to reduce traffic or congestion on the freeways or surface streets within those regions.
In fact, the oil and car companies will be absolutely ecstatic about Obama’s national high speed rail proposal because it will burn up huge amounts of capital that could go to highly useful urban transit projects that would in fact make a huge dent in fuel consumption.
April 17th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
First question: How do you integrate a high-speed rail network into the existing network of interstate highways and airports? Build the H-S rail lines above the median of the interstate highways where we already own the right-of-way. Use H-S rail to connect one major airport to another where the infrastructure exists for handling passengers, baggage, car parking, rental cars, hotels, etc. Airports become intermodal transportation centers.
Second question: How do you build political support? Let Boeing build the railcars in place of aircraft; let GE build the jet turbines; let the airlines operate their private equipment on the public roadway; they have experienced flight crews that can be re-”trained”, ground crews and baggage handlers, maintenance workers and processes.
Third question: How do you pay for it? Same way we pay for building and maintaining airports and interstate highways.
April 20th, 2009 at 7:30 am
High speed rail brings national pride. Any improvement to the US rail network will improve our economy. The USA has huge landlocked open spaces which aren’t accessible by ships. Today’s high speed passenger rights-of-way are tomorrow’s high speed freight corridors when passengers more on to newer, more exciting things. Freight transport is the lifeblood of an economy; without it, production and sales are impossible. If we can move people by rail at high speeds, we can move freight, and moving both will improve our economy while giving us something new and modern to be proud of.
April 24th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
I don’t think rail could work two-fold. Using some existing rails and upgrading them to accomodate both public and freight. We really need to get back to rail moving cargo more and semi trucks for local delivery. They make the containers that can be lifted off of rail and put onto a flat bed. Additionally, this would reduce the infustrator needed to keep highways up from all the heavy trucks on them. Additionally, when the FTA normally buys up land for interstate highway, it buys for plenty of expansion. What would taking a lane of highway be, if in the long run it would reduce the amount of traffic near them. Rail could create more jobs. Jobs for parking lot attendants and security when people park and ride, car rental, when you reach your destination of taxi drivers to take you where you need to go. Rail would need to be integrated with bus systems in urban areas. Remember, it takes a beginning to make grow and there will be growing pain along with it. Let’s not discount it. If you have ever traveled in Europe, it makes a vacation enjoyable and takes the worry out of traveling.
June 5th, 2009 at 4:49 am
Hey, would you like to submit comments and backlinks to millions of blogs automatically? Blog Comment Poster will do it for you. Blog Comment Poster will increase your traffic, backlinks and earnings dramatically! Sounds cool? Yes, it is cool! It’s the best automated comments posting tool on the Internet with many advanced features. Check it out!
August 11th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Simply
Since the interstates are where the people/business/cars are look to run high speed rail down the middle or near the highway right of ways. By working a select number of good interstates this might be a solution
I could work.