Yippidee-do we have taken the model of the "bridge to nowhere" and extrapolated it into an expensive train to nowhere. I know look at the map there is a starting place and an ending place. I live in Washington State and we have a great local rail system that starts in downtown Seattle and takes you to the airport, almost. It stops at least a quarter mile from the airport. Interestingly the airport was there befor the rail system and the airport did not move. Boy, I am sure impressed-not!Three questions at least fog this idea:
1. How do you get to the train?
2. How do you get from the destination station to where you really want to go?
3. And how much is it going to cost each passenger and maybe more importantly, how much is it going to cost each non-passenger to subsidise this?
Oh yes where are these trains going to be built? Since Europe and Asia is so far in front of us in this I guess we will have to rely on them to build the trains and provide the jobs. Europe was also ahead of us with the SST, Supper Sonic Transport, but how many are flying now?
The US federal government is providing $8 billion in grants — coming from economic stimulus money — to get things moving on the nation’s first high-speed, intercity rail service between a number of major cities.
US Department of Transportation Proposed High-Speed Rail Network
California will receive $2.25 billion, the largest amount for any state, in federal economic stimulus funds to develop a high-speed rail line running from Anaheim to San Francisco. Additional lines will also include a Midwest line from Chicago to St. Louis and one in Florida running from Tampa to Orlando. Trains will run up to 220 miles an hour.
According to a Los Angeles Times report, trains on the proposed Anaheim-to-San Francisco line, which is projected to ultimately cost about $42 billion, “would whisk passengers the 400 or so miles in no more than 2 hours, 40 minutes. The project would take a decade to complete, with extensions to San Diego and Sacramento planned.”
Florida will receive $1.25 billion to help build a high-speed rail system from Orlando to Tampa and, eventually, to Miami.
A $1.1 billion grant will fund a high-speed corridor between Chicago and St. Louis, and eventually to Kansas City.
An $823 million award to link Minneapolis to Milwaukee and Chicago.
New York state will receive $151 million for a high-speed rail line from Niagara Falls to New York City.
The California High-Speed Rail Blog has provided links to White House has info sheets on what each state received. Some highlights:
- $600 million for Pacific Northwest rail, including bypasses to help the Amtrak Cascades achieve 150mph service
- $4 million for Texas, for grade crossing improvements in Austin and Fort Worth
- $17 million for Iowa, for BNSF crossovers
- $400 million for Ohio, specifically for the Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati corridor.
- $1.13 billion for Chicago-St. Louis-Kansas City
- $800 million for Minneapolis-Milwaukee-Chicago
- $244 million for Pontiac-Detroit-Chicago
- $620 million for Charlotte-Raleigh-Richmond-DC
- $1.25 billion for Florida
- $485 million for HSR in Northeast Region and $706 million for Amtrak stimulus funding, for a number of different corridors from DC to Maine to Montreal.
UPDATE: For further reference, Wired magazine has just published a nice summary of who, what, when, where and why as it regards high-speed rail in the United States.
