US DOT has defined HSR

blue_streak_1 · April 30, 2009, 9:19pm

The US DOT released its High SpeenRail Strategic Plan Apr 16, 2009. Link will be below.

Commuter Rail ---------basically from city centers to points less than 100 miles.
Conventional Rail ----- 100+ miles 1 to 7 - 12 daily trains; 79 - 90 MPH speeds
Emerging HSR -------- 100 - 500 miles 90 - 110 MPH speeds
HSR Regional -------- 100 - 500 miles 110 - 150 MPH
HSR Express --------- 200 - 600 miles 150 + MPH

The distances are not to be considered hard and fast but would be adjusted for each route. l didn’t have time to read the report in detail but several graphs listed some time lines.

By the end of Sep, 2009 Projects to start and corridor programs are to be announce. Jan 2010 additional planning to be announced: by end of Mar 2010 the 2nd round of projects to be announced.

This paper is what was supposed to be out by Apr 1 (?) and at least we can now know the various definitions of HSR that have only been speculated about. The link to the full report is below and I’ll correct it if necessary.

www.fra

al-in-chgo · April 30, 2009, 9:22pm

Thanks for your effort! It was nice to see the categories nailed down.

blue_streak_1 · April 30, 2009, 9:33pm

Al:: corrected the link. Will be posting a thread in a few days with my take on all of this.

blue_streak_1 · April 30, 2009, 9:52pm

Al: I can see these definitions slowly entering into our lexicon of travel .

in Chicago; I’m taking the St Louis - Kansas City express; I’m taking the Bloomington Regional; I’m taking the Pontiac conventional, ; I’m taking the Summit commuter; I’m taking the Builder conventional; etc.

Of course the express in Acela Express will need to be dropped for now!!

al-in-chgo · April 30, 2009, 9:57pm

Is it any more confusing than pre-Amtrak, when three different carriers operated three different lines, Chi - St. Louis?

Deggesty · May 1, 2009, 3:25pm

How about the C&EI, as well as the IC, GM&O, and Wabash?

Johnny

al-in-chgo · May 1, 2009, 5:27pm

I guess I was slurring IC and GM&O together. - a.s.

oltmannd · May 1, 2009, 5:47pm

I was looking at the report and the “travel by mode” chart seems to show that, excluding the 1944 peak, rail travel maxed out at less than 1/10th of current air or current auto travel.

al-in-chgo · May 1, 2009, 8:17pm

“Current” as in 1944 or as of today?

aegrotatio · May 2, 2009, 12:30am

Wow. Even steam trains regularly reached 100mph. Or am I making things up?

henry6 · May 2, 2009, 8:34am

One hundred mph was, while not universal, achievable and common on some roads in some places. Even the the PRR’s GG1’s claimed some 100 mph speeds; steam did it in many a long straightaways as did the johnny come lately diesel on some of those same stretches. But as an industry standard, or even a service standard, no, 100 mph fell by the wayside during the Depression years as being too extravagant and unnecessary and during WWII as being unachievable under such choking traffic. After WWII, while some tried pushing the limit, not enough money was avaialbe to make the track do the work. Instead freight was bringing in the dollars at slower speeds while the passenger train was made to look spiffy. All the while the automobile and the airplane were taking passengers away so there appeared no real reason to make faster track. The Japanese, Germans, English, French, etc. were all going for faster passenger trains while we were going for fuller garages and congested highways with the automoible and airport runways and skies were cleared for the much faster jet plane.