Is America's quest for high-speed trains finally picking up steam?
Is America's quest for high-speed trains finally picking up steam?
Is America's quest for high-speed trains finally picking up steam?::New projects in California, Texas, and Florida are a sign that the United States is finally getting serious about modernizing its commuter railway system.
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It still blows my mind that there's only about 50 miles of "high speed" (greater than 125mph) transit in the US, and that's only in a small pocket in tbe Northeast. For reference, the EU has over 2,200 mi of high speed rail in half the physical size running at up to 186mph.
Due to the large physical size of the US, aircraft have out competed rail. Cities just are not nearly as close in the US.
Reliability is absolutely an issue that turns lots of people off - Just yesterday I had to switch to a different line in chicago bc of a delay. But to say that the "large physical size of the US" has allowed aircraft to out compete rail is disingenuous. It is so because it ignores the reality of strong city pairings for rail corridors and such line of thinking doesn't often take into account the boarding process' impact on total journey time. A 45 minute flight is going to require you to get there an hour early for security processing and boarding. You don't just show up 5 minutes before the plane takes off, yet that reality is true for the choo. Even then you still need to offboard, stop by baggage to get your goods and really hope they didn't lose them and have them unpacked in a few minutes. These bottlenecks just do not exist for rail. You get on in the city and get off right in the city. 10 minute taxi to your hotel and bob's your uncle. You simply cannot say the same for any metropolitan airport (Except metro ports that have a dedicated line from the airport to the city center). It won't be viable everywhere but that's not the point. The point is to remove the systemic barriers that prevent market competition where it can thrive (precision rail scheduling in many areas has made it physically impossible for freight to yield to passengers) and to provide reliable, predictable transportation not to the whims of traffic or those who can afford to purchase a vehicle.
Good transit utilizes the best modes for the best routes and this is why high speed rail is really starting in cali and the texas triangle - It's always gonna be faster for rail between two urban areas right next to each other than it is to fly, despite the fact that flying is far more common between such city pairs when people want to avoid driving or need to be there in the city center fast.
I'm far from an expert but I know for fact the United States has many cities that could be covered by HSR that are closer or the same distance as Tokyo -> Kyoto (one of the first HSRs); Keep in mind the shinkansen route is separate from the commuter route and only has a couple of stops. It's not like they reused significant portions of commuter rail, they built a new link.
I'll leave some reading here for more info because there's a lot of worthwhile knowledge to try and understand in projects like these:
CityNerd - Urban planner guy who knows a thing or two about transit
City Pairings for HSR by 2050 - More about city pairings, which is specifically worth focusing on for HSR bc that's how lines get started
America was quite literally built on the railroads. We take for granted the interstate highway system and don't realize its exorbitant cost, but if we had given rail even half the attention we gave the interstate since its inception rail would certainly be competitive. The interstate is national, so why not the rails too? It's not like CSX actually has to compete with BNSF - they don't serve the same area and are inherently monopolies. A business in Montana wanting to use rail for freight has to use BNSF because they're the only freight rail operating and owning lines there. For Denver you're stuck with UP for the same reasons. Most areas are lucky to have a duopoly, and anywhere there is competition is area that has several rail lines merging together, which also makes it perfect for transit.
Per Amtrak (Pg 2, 2021 Report Card) freight rail caused 900,000 minutes of passenger delay across all lines, and in 2023 (Through April, Host Railroad report pg 4) the major freight carriers were responsible for 67.8% of total delays, despite freight being legally obligated to yield to passenger trains most major operators generally ignore that law (Pg 2, Amtrak 2021 report).
So what's the point? Trucking companies don't get to clog the interstate and force passenger cars to yield so deliveries are faster. Passenger planes don't yield to FedEx/UPS/Amazon and circle above landing strips so freight planes get to land first. As a society we don't generally desire to systematically degrade the quality of transit, but we do so for rails because we're conditioned to believe that they are outmoded and just don't work for passengers. If that was true, no where in the world would they be used. Europe and Asia do in fact have more, higher density population centers but this fact does not preclude the capability of passenger rail in America, and we shouldn't believe in this logical fallacy that rail is outcompeted or out moded because of density. China is an interesting example, in that they too have a massive geography that is nearly as varied as America, and not every single city is inherently massive and super dense. Of course being a command economy makes it easy to do infrastructure projects but the viability of those projects doesn't change just because a different government is involved. While we were buying into the hype of hyperloop and slowing down California's HSR project, they built a solid 1000km+ of HSR where there originally was not.
We can do it, in many places HSR is very competitive, and it is economically viable. There does in fact exist a sweet spot of transit, long neglected in the market, where driving is just a bit too cumbersome, but taking a plane isn't any faster.
Of course, I'm just a radical who hates driving and loves trains because of the freedom to goon around with my friends in the city and bar hop without having to DUI or spend $45 on an uber.
The US is really only bigger than Europe if you count Alaska. I doubt there would be high-speed rail to Alaska anytime soon.
The majority of Europe can fit into just the central area of the US. Aircraft scale better with distance and is the core reason aircraft have succeeded so well in the US despite the push for more trains for decades. It's also why you do see some trains being built in CA, FL, and the NE, as the cities there are closer together, making the idea viable.
You do know that the Nordic countries are part of Europe, right? They stretch way up north past the edge of the image. They also happen to have some of the most advanced rail systems in the world.
most advanced rail systems in the world
As a Scandinavian: LOL
Sure, it may not be perfect, but it tells you a lot about the state of rail in the rest of the world. It's really only places like Japan and maybe China that leads the way.
Most of Europe and large parts of Asia has good railways compared to USA. It's not that the developed world has good railway systems, it's just that USA has a completely broken public transport system. But planes and trucks go brrr
France and Switzerland. First has trains as fast as airplanes, seconds has good network.
Sure, and they are about the same size as just CA, a place I specifically mentioned is viable for rail in the US.
Sweden:
Area of USA: 9,833,520 km^2
Area of Europe: 10,180,000 km^2
Did you seriously just compare the landmass of the United States with the entire fucking CONTINENT of Europe?
Yes...yes you did.
If that's the comparison you want then the Area of North America is 24,474,000 sq km.
The better comparison would be the US and the European Union. The EU is 4,422,773 km2.
Now sit down short stack. You aren't tall enough for this ride.
You did see that n2burns was replying to a comment that was a size comparison of the United States with the "entire fucking CONTINENT of Europe", right?
You are highly regarded.
You are highly regarded.
Unlikely. The upside of being socially inept though is that I have more time and headspace for important things...like knowing the difference between a Country and a Continent.
Let's go for Russia then. Compare sizes.
I don't think Europeans understand what space is. They are all crammed in together like tuna.
Most of Europe is comparable to California in terms of density and terrain. A few sprawling megacities, a lot of smaller towns on the way to and from them, and a couple of mountain towns that are a bitch and a half to get to.
And California and The East Coast actually have solid public transportation. More buses than trains but... yeah.
But what Europe largely lacks are "the flyover states". Like, I love to reference https://www.amtrak.com/plan-your-trip.html because it really highlights this. The East coast is pretty dense and you can more or less get anywhere within a day or two of train+buses. Which is very reminiscent of (the) Europe(an Union). That is true to a lesser degree in California.
But... fuck Wyoming. Also, there are almost no major routes going in because the vast majority of that state is nothingness and empty land. Which is when you use an airplane and then a rental car. Same as if you are going to a remote part of Norway or Sweden
Just adding on a rant here. People who are obsessed with public transportation to eliminate all need for cars are, at best, ignorant. They watched a youtube channel about some rich guy living in Amsterdam and think that is the entire world. That ignores anyone who lives in a small town where bus service is the only option and there just isn't enough traffic to justify any form of a commute so that they can make a living.
It is still privileged as fuck, but I strongly encourage anyone with the ability to do so to ACTUALLY go on a trip to the UK or Europe or Japan and then navigate via public transportation. Staying in a city and life will be amazing (which is true of most US cities as well). Going to a few touristy hot spots around the city may be a hassle, but is doable. But look in to doing a day trip or even going cross country. It is still a LOT more doable than in the US, but you start to have much tighter connections and start to get worried about a delay.
And then you realize that "cross country" is a lot closer to "one state over".
I would LOVE to have more public transportation options and very much enjoy not renting a car on a holiday (or only getting it for one or two days on an extended one). But even if we had full on Civ3 endgame levels of rail coverage, simple demand would still mean people need cars. Because having a train track go right to your front door doesn't mean that you have a train waiting for you to take you anywhere you want to go the moment you want to (... that is a car, by the way). You are still at the mercy of there being a sufficient number of people who want to make the same trip that it justifies running a car on that route at a frequent enough rate that you don't have to sleep in a bus station after sharing a bowl of soup with your grade school crush,
Nice rant. I was born and raised in a "third world country" with better transportation than the US despite much lower density. In fact it would rank just under Oregon, so 39 stated are more dense than my country.
California does not have good public transportation, neither does a lot of the East Coast, for that matter. I have lived on both coasts and the Midwest, and visited over 35 states. Public transportation is mostly crap with a few exceptions in the core of a few Metro areas, and the NE.
Public transportation advocates want more than to add buses and trains, you are misrepresenting what we ask for.
I have, on numerous occasions, had to throw water on European's plans to visit all of the big sites in the US in one visit. Wanting to see the Grand Canyon, the Everglades and DC in the same visit is not terribly practical. My advice has been to pick a region and see everything there. Pick a different region of the US on your next visit.
What was throwing them off was a day-trip can drive across several European countries, but will only get you through a few states in the US.
On the other hand, I have, on numerous occasions, had to throw water on American's plans to visit big sites in Europe in one visit. "Let's do Amsterdam and Copenhagen and then Paris, Rome, and Barcelona." In one week. Yeah, not gonna happen.
subsidies for roads and air vastly outnumber train subsidies and planning decisions are made around grant funding. Until the inflation reduction act there was zero grant funding for public trainways.
Part of this is the US government is just 5 oil companies in a trenchcoat
Road subsidies are 100%