High-speed rail plans

Obama unveils strategy

Steve Hawley, Apr 16, 09.

UPDATE (04/28/09, 10:36 am): Petra Todorovich with the Regional Plan Association was interviewed on April 23, 2009 on Fox News in a segment on the President’s High Speed Rail Initiative (video embedded below). Also, the California High Speed Rail Authority has a number of videos about the state’s HSR proposal and HSR in general at its website.

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President Obama unveiled a strategic plan for developing a high-speed rail system Thursday morning, according to the Washington Post. Obama stated, “A major new high-speed rail line will generate many thousands of construction jobs over several years, as well as permanent jobs for rail employees and increased economic activity in the destinations these trains serve. High-speed rail is long-overdue, and this plan lets American travelers know that they are not doomed to a future of long lines at the airports or jammed cars on the highways.”

High-speed rail received $8 billion from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, and President Obama has pledged an additional $5 billion over the next five years as part of the federal budget. The strategic plan is the first step toward distributing those funds, and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) will begin awarding contracts in late summer of this year.

Under the plan, high-speed rail funding will be advanced along three tracks: individual projects that are ready or almost ready, corridor development programs, and planning for future high-speed rail lines. The US Department of Transportation will issue eligibility requirements, application prerequisites, and evaluation criteria by June 17, and it will begin soliciting applications in August.

Currently, the US has only one “high-speed” rail line - the Amtrak Acela connecting the Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C. and Boston. While high-speed rail in Europe and Asia can exceed 200 miles per hour, Acela trains average just 80 miles per hour.

The FRA has identified ten potential high-speed rail routes in addition to the Northeast Corridor. Houston is part of the Gulf Coast Corridor, which would link the city to New Orleans and Atlanta. San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas/Fort Worth would be included in a South Central Corridor connecting to cities in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Houston, the only major port for those cities, would not be connected to the corridor.

Separately, the Texas High-Speed Rail Corporation, led by former Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, has called for a “Texas T-Bone” route connecting Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio by 2020. The T-Bone concept was developed by local and state officials working with stakeholders, and it has substantial political support. The FRA proposal, which would split the region into two different high-speed networks, could pose problems as a result, particularly since the FRA will be in charge of distributing federal funds.

However, federal legislation signed in October directed the Secretary of Transportation to study a proposal similar to the Texas T-Bone, which would add the Port of Houston to the South Central Corridor. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood must release his findings by October 2009.

Transcript of Obama’s statements on “A Vision for High Speed Rail.”

Older high-speed rail news

Comments

Lonny Stern said:

I found the Obama rail plan very ambitious and a step in the right direction in terms of agenda-setting. It just doesn’t make sense for airline carriers to make all these puddle-jumps anymore when high-speed rial could do the trick for less. Also, it opens up the possibility for dense mega-regions, where you could conceivably work in one city and live in another.

Looking at the proposal map:
http://assets.bizjournals.com/story_image/234229-0-0-2.jpg

What I found strange was that it would not connect Houston to Austin. I guess the idea is that it would be up to Texas to pay for that connection. I also thought it strange that the lines would not connect through Tennessee (a huge trucking state) so that the mid-West, south-West and east coast could connect. Also, sort of bizarre that a train would go all the way to Buffalo, but not connect to the mid-West.

Posted on Apr 21, 09 at 9:56 am

David Crossley said:

When I first saw this map, back in 2000, I was shocked to see that Houston wasn’t connected to San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, or Fort Worth. But considering how far ahead the Dallas/Ft. Worth congressional delegation has been for all this time about all matters rail, it’s not really surprising. We’re still stamping our feet here demanding beltways and fighting against transit and they’ve been out in front for a very long time.

It’s going to take some doing to repair that breach, but it has to be done. The biggest reason is the D/FW folks are cutting off their noses to spite their faces. We have the giant shipping port to the world. If we were to somehow turn our faces to the southeast because that’s where we might have high speed rail, which will also carry freight, they’re kind of high and dry, so to speak. We could easily imagine being tightly connected to Atlanta and the Piedmont megaregion, as well as Dallas.

We all need to get over that kind of competition. The Texas Triangle is our future, and the T-Bone is a first step to get it humming. Eventually we’ll do the triangle as high-speed rail, too, because Dallas will get it that the extra time the T-bone requires isn’t a great idea. We need them both, and the T-Bone is the least amount of rail that will get us all connected.

Posted on Apr 23, 09 at 8:54 pm

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said:

We need a high speed train to move here in Houston. I am very sure that one could be faster from one place to another ej. Katy to Pasadena going in a high speed train than in a car this because of traffic but what do we get, a sightseen train, a very slow train and wages the same and gas going up. Bus system very but very slow. Bus system is supposed to take people to terminals to get high speed train like New York.

Posted on Dec 18, 11 at 8:24 am

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