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Monthly Archives: September 2008

High-Speed Rail Part 4: Florida

By | | Planning Disasters, Transportation
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Florida is the only part of the U.S. other than California that has seriously considered a true high-speed rail project. In 1992, the Florida legislature passed a high-speed rail transportation act. This led the state Department of Transportation to propose a public-private partnership to build a high-speed rail line from Miami to Orlando and then to Tampa. However, Governor Bush killed this plan in 1999.

A high-speed rail advocate (and former Bush supporter) named C.C. Dockery then spend $2.7 million of his own money putting a measure on the Florida ballot that amended the constitution to require the state to build a high-speed rail network. The measure did not raise taxes or appropriate any money to the project, and it was passed by the voters. By 2004, perhaps more aware of the cost, 64 percent of the voters were persuaded to repeal it.

By then, however, the legislature had created a state high-speed rail authority and appointed Dockery to the commission. The authority had let a contract to prepare a detailed environmental impact statement (EIS) for the first leg of a high-speed rail line connecting Tampa and Orlando. This EIS was published in 2005, and the rail authority has subsequently disbanded (at least, its web site no longer works).

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High-Speed Rail Part 3: The Midwest Rail Initiative

By | | Planning Disasters, Transportation
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In 1935, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad — known as the Milwaukee Road for short — began operating steam-powered passenger trains at speeds up to 110 miles per hour between Chicago and Minneapolis. Passengers at that time had their choice of three railroads — the Milwaukee, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the Chicago & Northwestern — each of which had at least two trains a day that took 6-1/2 hours between Chicago and the Twin Cities.

The Hiawatha at 85 mph. Photo by Otto Perry, courtesy Denver Public Library.

Today’s Amtrak trains require eight hours for the same journey. The Midwest Regional Rail Initiative — a consortium of nine state departments of transportation — proposes to reduce this to 5-1/2 hours and to similarly speed service from Chicago to Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and other midwestern cities.

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High-Speed Rail Part 2: Europe

By | | Planning Disasters, Transportation
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Many Americans who visit Europe return gushing over the high-speed rail lines. If only our country had the foresight to build such wonderful trains! It is too bad that America is being left behind the high-speed rail revolution.

A German InterCity Express (ICE) train in Leipzig station.

Fast, frequent rail service may be a boon to tourists. But it does not play a significant role in overall European travel. Eurostat’s Panorama of Transport says that, as of 2004, rails in the 25-member European Union carried just 5.8% of passenger travel — down from 6.2% in 2000 — while automobiles (including motorcycles) carried 76.0%, up from 75.5% in 2000 (see p. 102).

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High-Speed Rail Part 1: Japan

By | | Planning Disasters, Transportation
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The presidential nominating conventions are over, so we can now turn back to more serious business, like debating rail transit. As it happens, Californians will get to vote this November on whether to sell $9 billion worth of bonds to start building high-speed rail from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

With a current total estimated cost of $30 billion ($45 billion when branches to Sacramento and San Diego are included) and rising, California high-speed rail is a megaproject of truly disastrous proportions. As one California writer says, it “would make the Big Dig fiasco in Boston look like a small scoop.”

Japanese high-speed trains on display.

Before looking at the California plan in detail, it is worth examining high-speed rail in other countries. The best place to start is Japan, which introduced high-speed rail to the world in 1964.

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Moving to the Center

By | | News commentary
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Going into their respective conventions this year, neither presidential nominee enjoyed the full support and faith of their parties. Normally, by the time of the convention, nominees turn from appealing to their parties to appealing to the electorate as a whole. In short, they move toward the center.

Yet, as the Antiplanner observed last week, Obama’s acceptance speech was an appeal primarily to the left wing of the Democratic Party, not to the nation as a whole. Similarly, McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate was an appeal to the right wing of the Republican Party (though Palin also appealed to McCain as a maverick who stood up to Alaska’s political establishment and won).

Both appeals were successful, but they raise the question of how the candidates can win without broader support. Of course, someone has to win, but usually the winner is the one who gains the support of the “independents” and other swing voters.

Perhaps Senator McCain’s acceptance speech, then, was the first effort to win that broader support. Although his speech contained policy proposals, it was mainly an expression of McCain’s philosophy and ideals. He also spent as much time congratulating Obama as criticizing him; it is clear that he intends Palin to be the attack dog in this campaign.

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Labor Day Break

By | | Housekeeping
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