High-speed rail on way to becoming a reality in U.S.

(Photo of futuristic high-speed trains side-by-side in Taiwan station from Flickr and photographer James Tung)

With U.S. population predicted to grow about 40 million in the next 20 years, we clearly will need some major build-out to move all these folks around. More highways? More airports? More, better and faster trains? Probably all three, but the latter makes the most sense for the planet, and we’re running far behind the rest of the world on trains. Rail here gets little respect. (see previous post)

Trains are an efficient way to move people up to 500 miles. You may be surprised to learn 80% of travel in the U.S. is within those bounds and one-third of the trips in and out of busy O’Hare Airport in Chicago are 500 miles or less. (This and other key information comes from James McCommons’ book, “Waiting on the Train.”)

As the highways and the skyways get more congested, causing frustration and long delays, it’s increasingly easy to listen to railroad buffs argue the case for trains – especially if they can move faster and more frequently than they do now, and get places on time.

Amtrak inter-city trains would be able to go up to 110 mph if they had better equipment and tracks where they could move freely, unhindered by freight trains.

And then there are the high-speed bullet trains – up to 220 mph – that Europe and Japan take for granted and even China is racing ahead on.

It may take 10-15 years, but high-speed rail seems to be coming – with support from the Obama Administration and many states.

California leads the way
California (as is often is the case) is likely to be first with a bullet train. Despite the car culture there, driving on choked freeways is no fun.

California voters approved a nearly $10B bond issue in 2008 to build a bullet-train line from LA to San Francisco (time: 2½ hours). Eventually it will extend to San Diego and Sacramento. The total cost is estimated at $40 billion. The state recently got $2.3B in stimulus funds to further its plans. The route is already selected and engineering is under way.

California is one of several states to put some of its own money into passenger rail, investing $2B since 1976. (Others include Illinois, Wisconsin, Washington and North Caroline.) California owns its own trains and is good at connectivity, having buses ready to pick people up at the train stations.

The Chicago connection
The Midwest also has a plan, using Chicago as a hub, to reach cities like St. Louis, Milwaukee and Detroit. It just got $2.2B in stimulus funds to work on the Chicago-St. Louis run. A portion of that line should soon be able to carry trains at 110mph. The Midwest has been planning for years and would like to link up with cities from Cincinnati to Kansas City over time. Stops in college towns would bring a lot of passengers onpoard.

Florida too got stimulus money ($1.25B) to develop a route from Tampa to Orlando. The state has been getting 400,000 new residents each year and has to think about transporting them. High-speed rail has been on-again, off-again over the past few decades. Former Gov. Bob Graham loved it, Jeb Bush hated it. But much of the planning is done and the state applied for the stimulus funds and got them. In addition to Tampa and Orlando, planners are eying Disneyland as a profitable stop. Future expansions would likely go to Miami and Jacksonville.

A national plan
The U.S. High Speed Rail Association has a plan (hit play on map to see it develop) that would link the country with high-speed trains by 2030.

Sure it would be expensive, but so are highways and airports. The federal government has a Highway Trust Fund but there’s no similar fund for trains. There should be.

Building high-speed rail would provide lots of jobs. California alone predicts 150,000 temporary and 450,000 permanent ones. This could be a major infrastructure project to put people back to work.

I know, you’re thinking the states are bankrupt and won’t be able to help finance such grand plans. But there are creative ways, such as selling bonds and forming public-private partnerships. Advocates say the revenue will be enough to pay back investors.

One current campaign is to get Congress to up its contribution to high speed rail to $4B a year for 5 years. This year the House voted that much, but it ended up being $2.5B. Obama has asked for $1B a year.

To join the campaign, go to fourbillion.com

(Special thanks to James McCommons and his book “Waiting on the Train” for much of the information here. Other sources: The National High-Speed Rail Association and Polk County Democrat.)