Search Results for: rail

High-Speed Rail: Planning Disaster of the Teens?

In a recent post, the Antiplanner pointed out that the United States is in competition with China, or more accurately, the Western model of democratic capitalism is in competition with the Eastern model of authoritarian capitalism. Now, China has announced the opening of the world’s fastest high-speed train service, capable of reaching speeds of 245 mph.

Fast for a train.
Flickr photo by Datemarker.

Naturally, this has treehuggers saying China will leave United States “in the dust” and the rest of the world behind as well. But let’s get real: in the United States, we use a technology known as jet airplanes that move people twice as fast as China’s high-speed trains.

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Rail Disasters of the Oughts

Although the Antiplanner spends a lot of blog posts ranting about rail transit, the truth is that all of the rail disasters of the last decade together did not cost nearly as much as certain other government planning disasters that the Antiplanner will cover later this week. Yet new rail transit lines can impose huge costs on local taxpayers, property owners, and — often — transit riders.

The sad fact is that rail transit takes so long to plan and build that just about any line that opened in this decade is really a result of planning that began in the 1990s or earlier. But for the purposes of this list, I mainly considered lines that opened after about 2004. This list is roughly in reverse order of the amount of net waste generated by each line or system.

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The Definition of Failure: Houston’s Light Rail

At one of the Antiplanner’s presentations in Houston, a member of the audience representing the Citizens’ Transportation Coalition propsed that Houston’s light rail was a success. I asked how he defined “success,” and his answer seemed to indicate that the fact that it carried lots of riders made it a success.

Wikipedia says Houston’s light rail carries the second-most passengers per route mile of any light-rail line in the country. But many of these trips are short — the average trip is 2.4 miles compared with a national light-rail average of 4.6. Also, Houston’s light-rail line is in the inner city and does not yet reach suburbs where ridership will be light. When measured on a passenger-miles per route mile basis, Houston’s is eighth highest, with Los Angeles’ light rail carrying more than 50 percent more passenger miles per mile.

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U.S. High-Speed Rail Network

When Obama endorsed the Federal Railroad Administration‘s 8,600-mile high-speed rail plan, the Antiplanner predicted that rail advocates would not be satisfied with such a small system. For one thing, the FRA system reached only 33 states. For another, as a system of unconnected corridors it failed to connect such key cities as New York and Chicago or Chicago and the West Coast. Although self-proclaimed high-speed rail “experts” say that high-speed rail only makes sense in 300- to 600-mile corridors, the Antiplanner argued that politics would lead Congress to insist that lines be built across the country.

Sure enough, a group calling itself the U.S. High Speed Rail Association has proposed a 17,000-mile network that connects both coasts and appears to reach 43 — possibly 44 (West Virginia is unclear) — states. The route map includes lines from Chicago to Seattle and San Francisco (via St. Louis, Kansas City, and Denver) and Dallas to Los Angeles (via Albuquerque, Phoenix, and San Diego).

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Travels with the Antiplanner 3: Sumpter Valley Railroad

As noted yesterday, the Antiplanner is in San Antonio today. But before leaving Oregon, I visited the Sumpter Valley Railroad for the fall photographer’s special. The Sumpter Valley Railroad once carried gold and timber between Prairie City and Baker, Oregon, but shut down in 1947. With help from the Union Pacific, local enthusiasts rebuilt a few miles of it in the 1970s and began tourist operations in 1976.

Sunrise in McEwen. Click for a larger photo.

The group operates two steam locomotives, the Sumpter Valley 19 and the Eccles Lumber Company 3. Eccles Lumber was a logging railroad that fed into the Sumpter Valley Railroads; both were founded by David Eccles, an Ogden entrepreneur, in the late nineteenth century. After the railroads shut down, the 3 was used as a stationary boiler by Boise Cascade, while the 19 went to the White Pass and Yukon, which later donated it back to the restoration group.

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High-Speed Rail Deadline

Today is the deadline for states to submit high-speed rail program applications. Only states with shovel-ready high-speed rail plans (meaning the final environmental impact statement has been approved) are eligible to make such applications. States without such plans had to submit applications for planning grants in late August, and at least some of those planning grants have already been awarded.

The Antiplanner spent Wednesday in Springfield, Illinois, where the primary question is not whether to build high-speed rail but where it is going to go. As the home of both the president and the secretary of transportation, Illinois officials believe their state has a lock on its proposal to build a high-speed (really, a moderate-speed) line from Chicago to St. Louis via Springfield.

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Dubai’s Gold-Plated Metro Rail

Dubai, one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, opened its fully automated metro system this month. The opening was accompanied by an announcement that the cost of building it had increased a mere 80 percent from the original projections. The city says the higher cost was because they added to the line (by less than 5 percent) and redesigned the stations after signing contracts with builders.

The heavy-rail line will not only be the first metro rail system to be fully automated, it will be the first in the world to have multiple classes. Each five-car train will have one “gold” or first-class car, at least one car for women and children, and the remaining cars for “silver” or economy-class passengers. The trains will also offer free WiFi. Since Dubai’s population is 85 percent foreign workers and 15 percent locals or wealthy emigrants, the gold-class cars will probably be relatively empty much of the time. At least those oil sheiks who forego their Maybachs won’t have to rub shoulders with the servant class.
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The cost of the initial red and green lines will average about $130 million per mile, which is typical for U.S. heavy-rail construction. Dubai plans to build two more lines by 2020, which will double the length and, no doubt, the cost of the system. The city expects to subsidize operations, which means it will never recover the construction costs out of fares. To help pay for it, they are selling naming rights to the train stations.

Race Is On to Cash In on High-Speed Rail

Or so reports the Wall Street Journal. Major companies mentioned in the article: railcar makers Siemens, Bombardier, Alstom; locomotive maker General Electric; Union Pacific; Wabtec (once known as Westinghouse Air Brake Company); So if you watch a lot of porn you will be desensitized to real see over here now sildenafil viagra de pfizer life sex. Many men experience it during times of trauma and many people cannot heal, because the curse forces them to relive and suffer from viagra cialis generico the condition of ED. It releases a high volume of testosterone, which is buy cialis pharmacy why not check here important to maintain healthy weight. If you are looking for a solid, simple business to start up on your own, then the vending machine route levitra cheapest price http://icks.org/n/data/ijks/1482456154_add_file_7.pdf may be the road to follow. and consulting firm HNTB.

I am sure that is just a tiny sample of all the companies hoping to cash in on the hundreds of billions that rail enthusiasts want the government to spend on their high-speed toys.

High-Speed Rail Is Not Interstate 2.0

Tomorrow, the Cato Institute will publish a new paper with the above title. Antiplanner readers can download a preview today.

Next Tuesday, September 15, the Antiplanner will be in Washington with Alan Pisarski and Gabriel Roth speaking about the Obama administration’s transportation policies. Go here to find out more about the forum and make reservations for a free lunch. (It’s not really free; first you have to attend the forum.) This forum will also be presented live on line; just click on the above link at noon on Tuesday.
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On Thursday, September 17, the Antiplanner will join Representative Scott Garrett (R-NJ) and the Reason Foundation’s Sam Staley in a discussion about transportation reauthorization. Go here for more information and to make reservations for a free lunch. Unfortunately, this forum will not be available live on line.

$21 Billion for Truncated Colorado High-Speed Rail

Early reports indicate that the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority — a Colorado entity led by a former state senator — wants to spend $21 billion on a starter high-speed rail system from Ft. Collins to Pueblo and Denver to Eagle. That’s about $65 million per mile, and would only buy trains that go an average of 60 mph in the mountains (that’s the Denver to Eagle part) and 140 mph on “portions” of the Ft. Collins to Pueblo part.

This is only a starter system as Colorado wants the Eagle line to go to Aspen, Craig, and Grand Junction, while Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas propose to eventually extend the Pueblo line to El Paso. The Antiplanner conservatively estimated that true high-speed rail on these routes would cost an average of $50 million per mile, so $65 million for 60 mph trains is pretty outrageous.

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