Friday, February 20, 2009

High-Speed Rail


Ok, I feel better after my previous post. The article. Imagine a train like this parked at the ATC awaiting passengers heading to Denver.

Note there is no HSR currently planned for ABQ. Not good. It would appear that the Front Range/Intermountain West has work to complete. Missing out on this type of infrastructure would be akin to missing out on the interstate highway system.

5 comments:

Michael said...

Great article. I'd be super excited if this happened, especially if it included Albuquerque to Denver.

Anonymous said...

There's additional HSR being considered including a Buffalo to Cleveland run, completing the Empire State System to Chicago, as well as the now infamous maglev train from Anaheim to Las vegas. For Albuquerque, the future of high speed rail is dim simply because our airways are not as congested as those on the coasts. When compared to the billions needed to build new runways and terminal facilities as well as the cost of upgrading air traffic control systems, especially in the Newark ATC area, high speed rail is economically viable. In the West, you would never see a system that could pay for itself, even in Denver, making such plans very contingent on politics.And while the Interstate Highway system was originally conceived as a defense project, HSR has little if any crossover political collateral.

Tim said...

Thanks, anonymous. That is all very understandable and likely to be the case when it all plays out. But one could argue that investing in rail transit in new growth areas of the country seems equally viable. Why should we invest in cities such as Cleveland, Akron, Detroit, etc. when much of the jobs and people are settling into the South and West.

The northeast corridor is a no-brainer. I'm quite certain that it's vital for the NYC area to expand it's transit options as its airports are landlocked and over capacity. But when you consider that in 20 years, the region stretching from Socorro to Cheyenne, WY, will be home to 7 million people, I think the option looks more realistic.

bathtub restoration queens said...

Great post i just love these fast train and i am also use to travel through these fast or bullet train i use this train in japan and UK and i really enjoyed my journey.

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I really like train traveling and i use to travel train for some time and i love it and i like these bullet trains and japan ad UK have fastest bullet train like UK underground trains.