European Rail
One of most amazing things about nearly all of Europe is their vast railroad infrastructure. I took a high speed train from Frankfurt to Seigburg, Germany, topping out at a breathtaking 300 km/hr, or about 180 miles per hour.
To top it all off, their rail infrastructure is almost completely electric. No diesel is sacrificed as it is here in the United States.
So why can’t we do that?
In the Midwest, there are light rail proposals being thrown around annually, gaining marginal traction with taxpayers. The problem typically revolves around ‘who ends up paying how much for what’. And I can see the point.
I surely don’t want to pay for a local rail system I don’t use and can’t foresee any return on.
In my opinion, we need a national high speed rail system implemented from coast to coast, boarder to boarder. Unfortunately the government would have to get involved to help define the standards (you don’t want one system on one gauge of track and another on a different gauge). Ideally though, the infrastructure would be privately developed with government subsidies.
Think about it, going from New York to Chicago, or Chicago to Dallas via Kansas City or St. Louis. Make that a day trip!
I believe that once such a system is defined, more local, light rail systems can take shape with much less risk to the bottom line.
If you live in a city with light rail, or even a country with high speed rail, do you see the system as an asset?
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The parent firm, for which I work, is a French High Speed Train/Rail designer and we are currently working on the California HSR. Cali’s success or failure will likely be the test case for the rest of the US for when it comes to design standards and application.
Overall I see HSR as a great thing to have but it comes with a huge price tag. In Europe, portions of the Infrastructure (rails) are usually subsidized by the gov’t (via taxes) but the rest is made up by revenues generated from users.
Of course, the difference in Europe vs the USA is the high gas prices. Higher gas prices do push people into mass transit more and I suspect we’ll have to hit $3.50/gal again before the cry for HSR gets louder.
I used the trains and subway (Underground) extensively during my trips to England. Having never been exposed to train travel in the US, I was in awe when I experienced the roar and rush of air as one of the London commuter trains blew past my station.
I think that we should make more use of trains in the US, but I wonder how much of the American idea of a car for every man, woman, and child – gets in the way of public sentiment and action towards revitalizing our railroad usage.
Yes, they just opened the light rail system here in Phoenix in December and it’s doing much better than expected. But, personally I’ve never ridden it.
We have serious air pollution and traffic issues here in the Valley and I think the creation of the light rail had more to do with that than anything else. We pay for it through a 0.4 percent sales tax voted on in Phoenix back in 2000.
I guess it serves a purpose for those who live in the East Valley and work in Phoenix. But IMO, I think money would have been better spent creating a high speed rail line with service between Phoenix and Tucson. Now THAT would have been more valuable, and done a LOT to reduce pollution, save lives, and eliminate traffic congestion.
Did you guys see this PBS special about Portland, it was fastenating. It makes me wonder why we couldn’t do it anywhere?
Excerpt:
http://www.pbs.org/e2/episodes/311_portland_a_sense_of_place_excerpt.html
Oh and you have to click play for it to start.
Fascinating not fastenating…damn…
Its a great system, however I doubt at this point Governments are ready to foot the bill to set such a system up.