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‘The time is right’ for US to catch up on high-speed rail, says British Amtrak exec
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2024
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Once the US has one working world-class HSR line (probably Brightline West, or possibly CAHSR), the appetite for more lines will increase. HSR will have become something that is common for Americans to ride when not on holiday to Japan or Italian hilltop towns, and reflexively dismissing it as “it wouldn’t work here because we have too much (space/liberty/big cars)” won’t work anymore. New plans will be proposed (a midwest network connecting Chicago to Cleveland and St. Louis?) and old ones (such as the Texas one) dusted off. And the Canadians will notice and jump on the bandwagon (given that a big chunk of their population would be reached by a line from Detroit/Windsor to Quebec City makes it a no-brainer).
Yes, Biden provided some funds for some of this but let's get real, that money likely will get stolen. We are lucky if they make boston to washington a real HS...
one can dream but for now, I want whatever this person is high on lol
Is it the case that the US fundamentally can’t do what, say, Spain and South Korea and Algeria have been able to, and that they have been able to do with, say, NASA, the military and numerous private corporate logistics systems, or just that they haven’t done it yet?
We used to have a thriving rail and trolley system in the US; in most major cities especially. The automakers destroyed it. When they were caught, they got a slap-on-the-wrist fine and the nation went with the automaker’s suggestion of building the highway system up.
So yes, there is a fundamental reason we can’t. It’s the auto makers and the politicians they own.
The answer is slightly more complicated than that.
Part of the problem is that a lot of mass transit was built in the USA by private companies to make a profit. This went from trolley lines in small cities to large parts of the NYC Subway and almost all commuter and interciry rail.
Most mass transit systems ended up being built as loss leaders to develop suburban property. After the property was developed, the incentive to maintain mass transit dropped. Along with that, rail companies generally hated passenger service and preferred freight instead.
It eventually got to the point where the private company would collapse and there was little political will to maintain service. There was some lobbying done by auto companies, but a lot of it came from cities and states too cheap to make transit a public good with public funding.
Just as side note... there was to that decision then just automakers btw.
Feds wants proper national high way system for defense purposes also. Automakers deff took that idea to turned into whatever this dystopian shit is while killing off any competition.
We have a new Brightline in Florida that goes from Orlando to Miami and has about 5 stops in between. It's not super fast (it takes about 3.5h, which is similar to driving), and it can get expensive for a family, but not having to drive on I-95 in South Florida is worth every penny.
it seems to be very popular so far.
From what I understand, it’s slow because along much of the route it uses legacy rights of way with level crossings. Brightline West will have all new grade-separated right of way, which will allow higher speeds.