![]() ![]() Now he’s watching Wall Street invest in high speed rail. Brown/AFP/Getty ImagesĪndy Kunz, president of the US High Speed Rail Association, said investors used to roll their eyes at him when he started speaking at conferences in 2010. China surpassed everyone in the last 12 years, building the world’s largest high-speed rail network, stretching thousands of miles, and moving passengers at speeds of up to 217 mph.Ĭonstruction workers build a portion of a high-speed rail line in Fresno, California. Africa’s first high-speed rail train came in 2018. Japan began building high-speed rail in the 1960s. High-speed rail advocates say that 2020 may be a turning point for US high-speed rail development, which has long lagged other developed nations. High-speed rail interest re-emerged in 2008 when former President Obama pledged billions. But the service isn’t considered true high-speed rail without investment in the tracks and infrastructure, and Amtrak has struggled to find funding. But high-speed rail soon stalled as the railroad industry collapsed in the 1970s.Įfforts began to speed up Northeast corridor train service in the 1990s, and the Acela launched in 2000. Legislation passed that year led to trains that traveled over 100mph between New York and Washington, DC. The first US modern high-speed rail efforts emerged in 1965 in response to Japanese rail innovations. He expects service to begin in seven years. “Now we’re real,” Texas Central CEO Carlos Aguilar told CNN Business. It also won a state court case this spring that gives it eminent domain rights, which will simplify the process of acquiring land between the two cities, which lie 240 miles apart. It’s expected to be completed in late 2023.Ī Texas project that will offer 90-minute-or-less trips between Houston and Dallas received an important environmental review in May after a six-year wait. Brightline, the Miami company that runs the project, plans to break ground later this year, with $5 billion of private funding, $4.2 billion of which will come in the form of tax-exempt bonds. XpressWest, a passenger rail project between Las Vegas and greater Los Angeles, a distance of about 170 miles, received the rights two weeks ago to build on the Interstate 15 median. While the economy has sputtered this spring and summer during the Covid-19 pandemic, high-speed rail projects have scored key wins. In the end, the initiative will likely fail on its own lack of merits.High-speed rail, long an afterthought in the United States, is making significant progress in the unlikeliest of times. The $50 billion infrastructure spending bill the president is supporting is merely a drop in the bucket for what's needed to maintain the existing transportation network irrespective of financing a "new" network of trail lines that will likely cost hundreds of billions of dollars over decades. States (and the federal government) will be saddled with billions of dollars of ongoing operating and capital costs under the most optimistic assumptions. While very early estimates suggest some corridors might cover operating costs, the vast majority will not. Forecasts for California, which on the surface would seem like a good candidate, are rife with dubious assumptions and rosy scenarios to make the numbers work. Indeed, simply looking at the initial projects receiving federal money - most notably California and Florida - reveals that the purpose is to jump start spending on rail projects rather than strategically invest in high potential corridors. ![]() The Obama administration's commitment is based on vision and political commitment to rail, not a rational analysis of potential costs compared to benefits. Second, success is a moving target for high-speed rail advocates. At best, high-speed rail makes sense for very specific corridors, and these corridors will be regional, not national. The nation is a vast geographic area covering thousands of miles of unpopulated and sparsely populated areas that are unsuitable to high-speed rail. Even the most ardent proponents recognize that high-speed rail would be most effective in meeting travel needs connecting employment centers between 200 miles and 500 miles apart. At best, high-speed rail makes sense for very specific regional, not national, corridors in the U.S.įirst, the concept of a "national" network of high-speed rail simply doesn't make sense for the U.S. ![]()
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