10 corridors targeted for high-speed rail

[marmar]

from the Philadelphia Inquirer:




Posted on Mon, Aug. 9, 2010

10 corridors targeted for high-speed rail

By Paul Nussbaum
Inquirer Staff Writer


The federal government, since 1991, has designated 10 corridors for high-speed rail development, including the Philadelphia-to-Pittsburgh "Keystone Corridor."

Those "designated corridors" don't include the most heavily traveled one, the Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston.

Most of the corridor plans involve incremental steps to speed up existing service, rather than installation of true high-speed service with trains traveling at more than 155 m.p.h.

That's much cheaper, allowing passenger trains to share tracks with freight and commuter trains. But it does not allow for the full advantages European or Japanese-style high-speed rail offer, such as dramatic travel-time savings that can make trains competitive with airplanes.

Eventually, the "higher-speed" corridors could be upgraded to true high-speed service, with separate tracks and signal systems. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/100243124.html?page=1&c=y#ixzz0w7Mtt2aN

[Recursion]

1. Good lord... how long are they going to talk about this?

We approved billions of ****ing dollars of our money for this. Why not get started?

[Javaman]

10. As long as they can if they believe they can still squeeze votes out of the naive. nt

[Posteritatis]

17. Indefinitely.

There's this horror of public transit or anything too close to it these days, either from the "I've got mine" crowd with cars or affording air travel, or the somewhat viler crowd which simply looks down on people using that sort of thing - or buses, or etc.

Between that and the curious meme going around that the US has some unique form of geography that makes it the only place on the planet where HSR is unworkable, I can only assume such a thing will be fought tooth and nail until twenty years after we all get personal teleportation devices.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

2. No NYC to Chicago route?

Seems like that would make more sense than high-speed rail between Little Rock and Texarkana... (No offense to Texans and Arkansans...)

[burnsei sensei]

4. My point exactly.

It's necessary, necessary, necessary.

[xultar]

12. Or a Nola to Chicago or ATL to Chicago. What are they thinking.

[Sebastian Doyle]

14. Looks like you would have to go from NYC to Philadelphia

and then move west from there.

Hopefully an entire west coast corridor will also be in place eventually. Going from Vancouver BC to Eugene on the north end and from San Diego to Sacramento on the south end is a great start. But it doesn't make a lot of sense to leave an empty space between Eugene and Sacramento.

[burnsei sensei]

3. Where is the money going to come from?

1. We are fighting two inconclusive wars.
2. The rich won't pay their fair share in taxes.
3. The "middle class" and impoverished majority have no money to pay higher taxes with.
4. Is this a stupid corporate dream to buy off the desperate?
5. The federal government doesn't own the tracks on which the trains travel any more. They had an attack of the stupid and sold them all.
6. The cities of Buffalo and Pittsburgh are curiously isolated. Right now, there is a route the Lakeshore that links Buffalo with Chicago. I see no linkage in these routes.

These routes are only a good starting point.
There will need to be more and more stops in the hinterlands before the high speed rail proves useful to most Americans.

[marmar]

5. But high speed trains don't generally stop in the hinterlands, at least based on European models....

..... just in the major metro areas, where most people live.

If you're taking the Thalys from Amsterdam to Paris, you're not going to stop in every little burg in the Netherlands, Belgium and France - just Rotterdam, the Hague, Brussels and Paris. The milk-stop trains stop in the hinterlands.

[MilesColtrane]

6. Yep, we are beyond broke.

We need to return to the Eisenhower era tax rates.

The very richest would barely notice.

Tax Bill Gates (for example ) at 90%, and he'd still be a multi-billionaire.

[Recursion]

16. We've already approved billions for it

A lot of this was part of the stimulus -- we just aren't spending the money.

[Loge23]

7. The Rusty Spike

We could be puttng thousands back to work building - no, "re-building" the nations' rail system.
We could have a viable alternative to the disgusting state of air travel.
We should have a nation-wide high-speed rail system linking both coasts - not to mention links between major metro areas.

[femmocrat]

8. I have been hearing about the Keystone Corridor for 30 years....

since the Shapp administration, I think. :eyes:

We don't even have decent highways in this crappy state.

[jpak]

9. K&R - and the Downeaster needs an express run from Portland to Boston AM & PM

yup

:thumbsup:

[xultar]

11. There must be a Nola to Chicago or ATL to Chicago route.

[Lars39]

13. Is it too much to ask for train from Nashville to *anywhere*?!?

Sheez.

[Ichingcarpenter]

15. 'share tracks with freight and commuter trains'

Yeah, that works so well on the west coast.

Even this plan is most likely 5 years down the track.
I'll eat my shorts if they get one those corridors finished in that time let alone
a real high speed system that china, japan, south africa, europe or russia has.

[chaska]

18. IF ONLY THEY WERE GREEN. Please read....

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2007/04/planes-on-whe-1.html

[Initech]

19. No LA / SF to Vegas line?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

20. They say they're going to build one here in Brazil, from Rio to São Paulo. -nt

[jtrockville]

21. I'd love some high-speed rail from DC to NYC.

For now, I'll stick with the Bolt Bus.