I don’t know if it can be put more plainly than this…
But, I would say it’s more than alternatives for existing trips…it’s about growth where air/highway capacity is constrained.
Probably too hard a concept for most…
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For some time now, I have been a proponent of high-speed rail. It is a great idea for what I will call recreational travel, but it doesn’t work all that well for business travel.
I used to fly out of O’Hare to LaGuardia quite often to meet with clients. I would leave my home at 4;30 AM and take a limo to O’Hare for a 6:00 AM flight, I could be into downtown Manhattan by 10:00 AM New York time. I could have four hours of meetings plus lunch and be home by 8:30 PM. I would not be able to do that using HSR.
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And considering today’s Security issues it is highly likely you would not be able to do that today by commercial airlines. Now if you can take advantage of the private plane tax advantage that would be a different story.
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Looking at the map, it appears to be tge old NYC. Just because you have the track, doesn’t mean you have the route. Does the current curvature support HSR? How many hundred (thousand?) grade separations must be made? How many height clearances? The NYC-CHI corridor doesn’t have the importance that it once did. Buffao, Cleveland and other cities have drastically reduced populations. I think the future of passenger rail is in the 300 mile corridor field.
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If you have CLEAR (I do), airport security is a breeze. Five minutes and you’re through. If you fly a lot for business or pleasure, time is money.
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Since we’re imagining, why not a route between vibrant cities that lie closer together. Say Nashville - Atlanta with a from scratch line. Employ the Boring Company to make it more straight and less intrusive.
Depends actually. Beijing to Shanghai is the same distance Chicago to New York and the nonstop trains do it in 4 hours flat. If you live near downtown Chicago like I do I could leave at 0430 and get to mid Manhattan by 1000.
TSA pre check is just as fast and less expensive. It’s often the same line.
Uh, no. You go to the head of the line. You end up in the same place, but tge precheck line is always longer than the Clear line, in my experiences at LAX, DTW, BIS, JFK, etc. It may be different at ORD or MDW.
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The market HSR is looking for does not possess your perks!
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I don’t think NYC to Chicago needs actual HSR. But an overnight service so a businessperson could leave work and catch an overnight sleeper train at 6 or 7 and get to NYC by 8 or 9 would work well.
A lot of folks do not want to wake at 4 and go through the hassles of flight to get going on business meetings at 10. By train you could relax look at computer, have a light dinner and breakfast and get off refreshed in Manhattan.
True HSR works better for `300 mile metro pairs of importance where there is a lot of traffic potential of people in a hurry mostly business people.
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Is it still in existence?
Sadly I don’t think the US is capable of anything like that even if we had the will.
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Middle class income is “perks”?
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I don’t think HSR will ever really spread in the United States until we get the first example project done on time and on schedule that produces solid self-sustaining financial results or at least break even at some point.
At this point it looks like the Brightline West project is our last and best hope but even with that project I am concerned that it does not go all the way to downtown LA which I suspect will represent a financial hit. The debt maintenance is another concern.
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Yes, and it’s expanding its successful Las Vegas project.
A perk that is included with many credit cards?
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What is the Boring Las Vegas project?
Brightline West has received or will receive approximately $6.525 billion from the federal government. The committed funding includes a $3 billion grant under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, $3.5 billion in private activity bond allocations, and $25 million from federal monies granted to the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority for construction of the Hesperia and Victor Valley stations.
Brightline West has also applied for a $6 billion Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Loan to cover anticipated project cost increases. The application is pending.
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