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Intercity passenger rail in the US
To recap, the US has the most heavily used freight rail system in the world. But although passenger rail (Amtrak) was very heavily used before the invention of the auto, it is no longer used much at all. We usually have good highways and airports, so there's not much need, despite some recent freeway congestion. Besides short-run commuter lines, the only halfway viable route is Washington to Boston via New York City (the Northeast Corridor).
Really, the route that makes the most sense is Washington to New York City (225 miles). An Acela Express train runs every hour. 10,000 airline/train trips occur each day between the two cities, and the train has a ~ 55% share. Currently, the Acela Express is scheduled for 2 hours, 45 minutes, but there is a new service that only stops in Philadelphia and totals something less than 2 hours, 30 minutes.
Over the last year or so, Amtrak has been smart about things and has focused on increasing the reliability, on time percentages, and frequency along the Washington to New York City route. As far as I can tell, Amtrak hopes that it can demonstrate its usefulness to a skeptical congress, thereby buying itself some political capital to make additional investments on the Washington to New York City route, and then ultimately to other short routes that might make sense.
From time to time, Adam Smith has laid out a menu of improvements on the Washington to New York City route. Basically $650 million in investments reduces the time from Washington to New York City by about 15 or 20 minutes. The next 15 minutes will cost you about $7 billion. These options are starting to be repeated to the congress.
Anyway, the point here is that in the subway thread, I said:
I take that back. It might make sense LA to Las Vegas and LA to San Francisco. But probably even these don't make sense, considering that large amounts of investment would be required to establish any sort of viable service.
Really, the route that makes the most sense is Washington to New York City (225 miles). An Acela Express train runs every hour. 10,000 airline/train trips occur each day between the two cities, and the train has a ~ 55% share. Currently, the Acela Express is scheduled for 2 hours, 45 minutes, but there is a new service that only stops in Philadelphia and totals something less than 2 hours, 30 minutes.
Over the last year or so, Amtrak has been smart about things and has focused on increasing the reliability, on time percentages, and frequency along the Washington to New York City route. As far as I can tell, Amtrak hopes that it can demonstrate its usefulness to a skeptical congress, thereby buying itself some political capital to make additional investments on the Washington to New York City route, and then ultimately to other short routes that might make sense.
From time to time, Adam Smith has laid out a menu of improvements on the Washington to New York City route. Basically $650 million in investments reduces the time from Washington to New York City by about 15 or 20 minutes. The next 15 minutes will cost you about $7 billion. These options are starting to be repeated to the congress.
Anyway, the point here is that in the subway thread, I said:
Originally posted by DanS
You are deliberately misconstruing my opinion. Intercity rail makes little sense, except in the NE corridor.
You are deliberately misconstruing my opinion. Intercity rail makes little sense, except in the NE corridor.
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