Developing High Speed Rail Right - In Review

Over the past few weeks I have been discussing the best way for the US to develop a new High Speed Rail System. Future posts will move the imaginary ideal system into the midwest and southeast United States. Before moving on, though, we should take a look back to where we've gone:

1) Make the Northeast Corridor true High Speed Rail.
2) Build the Lackawanna Cut-off from Scranton to New York City
3) Transform the Maple Leaf Route from New York to Toronto via Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and Niagra Falls into a true high speed rail line.
4) Extend the high speed Northeast Corridor to Richmond and Newport News, Virginia
5) Connect Boston, MA to Albany, NY via Springfield, MA
6) Connect Springfield, MA and New Haven, CT via Hartford, CT
7) Upgrade and complete the Keystone Corridor between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, PA via Harrisburg, PA
8) Connect Chicago and Windsor, ON Canada with High Speed Rail enabling through service to Toronto, New York, and Massachusetts.

With these plans, the following states would have high speed rail service: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and the province of Ontario, Canada. It would also serve 8 of the top 25 metropolitan areas in the United States by population and the largest city in Canada. Not a bad start.

New Infrastructure Funding Method? Don't Bank on it.

Last week, when announcing his plans for a new round of infrastructure spending to stimulate the economy, Obama reached back to 2008 to pull out a plank from his campaign platform. When campaigning on the economy, president Obama made the creation of a national infrastructure bank to fund projects of national significance an priority.

Until last week, it was a priority that took a back seat to issues like health care reform and ending the war in Iraq. Congressmen James Oberstar (D- MN) and John Mica (R-FL) tried to raise the idea as part of a surface transportation authorization act to renew the years-obsolete federal transportation authorization. This idea was squelched by the White House and Senate leaders who wanted to focus on other matters. Now, with elections looming and the potential for GOP control of congress come January, any type of infrastructure bank or surface transporation reauthorization does not have a good prognosis.

I think the infrastructure bank is a great idea, though, because it depoliticizes transportation spending. Transportation spending often takes the form of pork-barrel spending. Congressmen and Senators push projects in their home districts to 'bring home the bacon' to their constituents. Money spent in their district means more jobs and more prosperity for their voters, and come election season they can boast of the Ben Chandler train station or the Mitch McConnell interchange as contributions their political influence made to bettering the lives of the people in their district.

What pork barrel infrastructure leads to is projects like freeways to rural areas and bridges to nowhere. Airstrips in sparsely populated eastern Kentucky and rail lines in Wyoming. It also leads to projects with little conherence and coordination, like an unconnected freeway or commuter rail that drops commuters off at an airport at the edge of town. A central infrastructure bank could plan projects so that the country could get the greatest return for its investment and conditions would be right for a national intermodal transportation system to emerge.

A national infrastructure bank could also take pressure off of states dependent on large highway and commuter rail infrastructure. Illinois, New York, Ohio, New Jersey, Arizona, Texas, California and Florida have sagging budgets because past conservative administrations have passed down a legacy of infrastructure neglect that carries a heavy price tag. Well targeted federal investment from a vigorous national infrastructure bank would repair infrastructure to the point that economic activity could safely proceed without breaking the state treasury.

There are a few reasonable objections to the establishment of an infrastructure bank. Such an institution would sever the act of appropriating tax revenue from the officials elected in the House of Representatives. Constitutionally, one of the reasons our founding fathers entrusted the House with the powers of the purse was that they were directly elected by popular vote. Appropriations bills originating in the House carry the power of popular will behind them.

As a result, the infrastrucuture built by the proposed bank would not necessarily be the infrastructure that the people want. Then again, since the commercial needs of the country don't often run parallel to the individual desires of its citizens, this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I can't imagine, though, that there won't be objections from congressmen who represent rural districts and their often conservative constituents. An infrastructure bank awarding grants to projects nationally would certainly distribute a much higher proportion of funds to urban areas where commuter networks, metros and freeways with high price tags are more of a necessity.

Despite its shortcomings, I think the national infrastructure bank would be a step in the right direction for the country to help rebuild and repair its crumbling pipes, roads, and rails. It would strip congress of the temptation to write pork legislation and target the projects that would serve the most people and do the most good. Hopefully the proposal gets some traction in congress.

To the Midwest

Since we have extended our imaginary High Speed Rail system across Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh and across New York State and across the international border to Toronto, Ontario it is time to connect the US's third largest city, Chicago, to our high speed rail network.

Since Pittsburgh is the western terminus of our rail lines in the United States it might seem logical to connect to Chicago through the steel city, but I think the high speed rail system - and American workers - would be better served by a line connecting Chicago to Windsor, Ontario via Gary and South Bend, Indiana and Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor and Detroit, Michigan.



The train would traverse the route covered by Amtrak's Wolverine service and passenger trains of past ages like the International and has the potential to foster greater economic cooperation and trade between the Canadian core and the American midwest and rustbelt regions.



Why take this route? For a variety of reasons. For one, eastern Michigan desperately needs economic development and extending high speed rail there could stimulate some modern manufacturing and financial business in the region. For another, Canadian rail operator VIARail will be building high speed rail from Windsor, Ontario through Toronto to Montreal, Quebec, linking the Chicago-Windsor line to the New York City - Toronto line, making throughn transit possible between New York and Chicago and opening up the midwest region to the east-coast and Canadian rail traveling culture

A thought for Pennsylvania

The Northeast Corridor kisses the southeastern corner of Pennsylvania, and our previous plans have a new high speed rail line running from New York City to Scranton, PA and Binghamton, NY. We should next focus on connecting Philadelphia, the corridor's second biggest city, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's western Metropolis.

This would create a more than 340 mile east-west connector for the 6th most populous state paralleling the Pennsylvania Turnpike both in route and in economic significance.

The corridor is already half-way built with Amtrak's Keystone Connection, a 110mph electrified rail line from Philadelphia to Harrisburg. It would not take much work for this rail line to be upgraded to true high speed status. West of Harrisburg, the tracks go through the rugged Allegheny region of Pennsylvania. Substantial expensive upgrades would be needed here.

This would provide US High speed rail's first connector towards the midwest as Pittsburgh is within a short distance of both Ohio and Michigan, clearing the Appalachian barrier to our growing imaginary high speed rail system.

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10) Florida East Coast Corridor

This would only take a few hundred million dollars to make operational for passenger rail, and would connect urban centers like Miami and Jacksonville to the Treasure Coast, the Space Coast, Daytona and Palm Beach. Most of the preliminary work has already been done and the State of Florida is seeking funds to make this project a reality.

9) The Pioneer Route

A study completed in 2009 suggests that re-establishing this old Amtrak route, defunct since 1997, is indeed feasible. Running from Denver to Seattle, it would connect underserved communities in Wyoming and western Oregon as well as the Boise, Idaho area.

8) The Lackawanna Cut-Off

As I already wrote, this is a perfectly engineered high speed rail line that only needs a few hundred million dollars worth of work to make operational again.

7) East Side Connector

This would be a new subway under the Hudson River to extend the Long Island Railroad to Penn Station, taking pressure off Grand Central Terminal and providing commuters from the east one-seat rides to midtown Manhattan.

6) The Sunset Route

Truncated to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina left a swath of devastation in it's wake, the Sunset Route could easily be restored between New Orleans and Jacksonville or Orlando. The stations are already built and Amtrak is interested in seeing service restored as it would close a major east-west gap in their service.

5) The Northern Flyer

An extension of the Hearland Flyer, a train from Fort Worth, TX to Oklahoma City, OK that would bring the train to Newton, Kansas or Kansas City, MO to connect with other services east and west.

4) Unifying the Boston Transit System

Boston is the only city I know of that has two different commuter rail systems, one from the north and one to the south. As of right now there is no direct connection between the two systems. In fact, the terminus for high speed rail in New England is Boston and until such a connection is built, no lines northward and procede through the Boston metro area. It would also allow Amtrak to offer a 1-seat ride from Washington, DC to Portland, Maine.

3) Iowa Passenger Trains

This would be two trains, one from Chicago to Dubuque, Iowa through Rockford, Illinois and one to Des Moines through the Quad Cities area. Iowa and Illinois have been on board with these trains for a couple of years now, they are just waiting for Amtrak and the government to push the button.

2) Light Rail

Many metropolitan areas have ambitious plans for constructing or expanding their light rail systems but lack the local and state funds to make it happen. Houston, Dallas, Seattle, St. Louis, Kansas City, the Tampa Bay area, northern New Jersey, Minneapolis, Denver and Detroit would all benefit for more federal funds for light rail.

1) Baltimore Tunnel Project, The Hudson River Tunnels, the Hells Gate and the Portal Bridge

The biggest bottlenecks on the high-speed Northeast Corridor should be opened up to reduce delays and allow trains to run closer to their optimal speeds. These long-planned projects would cost billions and there is little will in statehouses to spend that kind of money in the middle of a recession. Obama's stimulus could help make the Acela Express a truly high-speed rail line.

Building Another Link

Now that we've branched the Northeast Corridor off into lines serving Scranton, Toronto, Norfolk, and Albany, it is time to consider building another link in our growing imaginary high speed rail network.

As ridership increases it is important to form alternate routes between large urban areas to relieve congestion and to serve more communities. Studies have shown that many people are hesitant to change forms of transportation or even between different carriers that share the same form; this is the reason that most people where I live (Lexington, KY) won't drive 60 miles to the nearest Amtrak station (Maysville, KY) to take the train.


So the next line upgraded to true high speed rail should run between New Haven, CT to Springfield, MA. This line would connect the current Northeast Corridor as it bends to the east from New York City to the Albany-Springfield-Boston connection.


As it stands today the state of Connecticut is already moving forward with plans to upgrade the line to make it accessible to commuter trains with an eye towards providing high-speed rail service in the future.


The cost of upgrading and electrifying the 65-mile line is certainly within reason as most of the route is double tracked and is currently in use as part of an Amtrak route.

Connecting Boston

This post is a continuation of a series of thought experiments that follow a planned, coordinated expansion of high speed rail across the United States in a rational way serving the communities that need it most and the areas most ready to use the technology.

Now that we have extended high speed rail lines connecting with the existing Northeast Corridor in New York and Washington, we should consider the northern terminus of the Acela Express route, Boston.

Boston is the third largest city served by the Northeast Corridor after New York and Philadelphia. It boasts a well-developed and comprehensive public transportation system that includes light rail, rapid transit, and commuter rail. Thus Boston's culture is very amenable to the use of trains. There are many improvements to HSR in and connecting to Boston that should be seriously considered.

A priority should be connecting Boston to Springfield, Massachusetts and Albany, New York with high speed rail. This route is nothing new. In 1901 the Central New England Railroad ran passenger service through here, and Amtrak currently offers one train each direction a day along the route as part of its Lakeshore Limited service from Chicago.

Springfield is a growing metropolitan area with a commuter and tourist culture that looks to the areas south and east. It's population would be well served by high speed rail bringing them closer to destinations along Cape Cod and Downeast Maine.

By connecting Boston to Albany via high speed rail, we would also connect it to the already discussed service through Albany to Buffalo and Toronto. Direct Boston to Toronto service would include cities like Rochester and Syracuse, giving another economic boost to the hungry communities in upstate New York.

Now our growing high speed rail system finally begins to take on a different shape - instead ofb just lines branching out, it is becoming a webbed network of interconnected cities. The next line we build should be another link in the web, rather than a new branch.

Interestingly enough, Amtrak is already considering improving and expanding the Northeast Corridor, but their plans are somewhat conservative and underwhelming when considered against the infrastructural and economic needs of the population they serve.

Looking South

Now that we've made New York a hub for high-speed rail from the northwest and the west by linking it to both Toronto, Ontario and Scranton, Pennsylvania, we should look to another direction for future expansion of HSR. Remember that this is how the billions of dollars we are going to be investing in this technology would ideally be spent, not how it actually will be spent.

Washington, DC is currently the southern terminus of the Northeast Corridor, the United States' only HSR line. Expanding the Northeast Corridor from here is difficult because the mountains make the regions west of Washington less dense and not ideal for HSR travel.

Any extension to the south would have to go through Richmond, Virginia, a city around 100 miles south of Washington. Virginia has already expressed interest in expanding the northest corridor to Richmond. From Richmond there are several good options open to expanding High Speed Rail, but the next closest metropolitan area is the Norfolk/Newport News/Hampton Roads area. The existing Amtrak route, owned by CSX Transporation, could be upgraded and expanded into Norfolk proper to serve the port and naval base there.

So after turning New York into a high speed rail hub, our high speed rail system should be expanded to serve northern and eastern Virginia, one of the fastest growing regions in the country and an area where public transportation that could serve HSR has recieved increasing attention.