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179 comments on The High Speed Passenger Rail Act, Draft 1

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Frugal on March 17, 2007 - 10:24pm

"High speed is not necessary. 60mph in the open would be just fine."

I totally disagree with that statement -- 60 mph is not high speed rail and will not attract nearly as many riders as a 150 mph system. If you don't believe me, check out what happened to rail ridership in Japan and Europe after real highpeed lines were built.

Remember that you are competing with both airplanes and automobiles, airplanes having much higher top speed than any rail system and automobiles with their point-to-point advantage.

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Aniya on March 17, 2007 - 11:28pm

Hi Frugal,

I think the point was - will there be the capital for high speed?

Still, just anecdotal, but personally I know many people who would love to take the train but don't due to things that seem within the realm of "doable" - better reliability, schedules, cost (depends on trip), connections, a little more attention to safety/health features.

I wonder if the "point-to-point" can be helped in some way. Planes often also involve "point-to-point", depends on how far. For many purposes, all three are options, and train is out of the question at present, which seems "fixable".

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Ilan on March 18, 2007 - 5:39am

I think we should be looking beyond the next few years. For now it appears essential that you need a 150mph service, but I am sure the capital costs greatly increase for higher average speeds. Also there will be a time in the not too distant future where air travel costs will go up so much that a decent long-distance rail system will be very competitive

I think the aim should be "moderately high speed" i.e. from 75mph-100mph. This will put it way ahead of any bus service. Also consider the maintenance costs, I am sure that such costs will increase if you need to maintain 150mph speeds.

and remember a good rail service will start and finish in a city center, not at an airport which requires a longer car/taxi/bus/train journey to get to any destination.

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