Comments on: A Map Of Proposed High Speed Rail Projects in the US

By: Buffett’s BNI Buy and the White House Rail Projects Agenda | Stocks and Sectors

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:39:17 +0000

[...] wrote: Compare Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s route map with the map of proposed high speed rail projects competing for $8 billion in federal stimulus funding and you can get a sense of some of the [...]

By: Buffett’s BNI Buy and the White House Rail Projects Agenda | Reaction Radio

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:05:50 +0000

By: a2lab » Blog Archive » CMU_Pittsburgh Transportation now and Beyond

a2lab » Blog Archive » CMU_Pittsburgh Transportation now and Beyond — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:23:31 +0000

[...] http://www.infrastructurist.com/2009/04/20/a-map-of-proposed-high-speed-rail-projects-in-the-us/ [...]

By: Chicago, 8 states sign high-speed rail pact - Politics and Other Controversies - Page 2 - City-Data Forum

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:59:03 +0000

[...] [...]

By: Chicago, 8 states sign high-speed rail pact - Politics and Other Controversies - City-Data Forum

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:10:54 +0000

[...] [...]

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:39:49 +0000

Yeah, but I don’t think Iowans would want a highspeed rail line if they had to pay the cost of deploying it. Per citizen, it would be quite expensive when compared to the major metro areas where millions of people live.

By: J. Wesley Warren

J. Wesley Warren — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:21:26 +0000

I see our great state of Iowa, once referred to as “The Crossroads of America,” didn’t make the cut! Our people were busy electing a President and they’ll go down in history maybe with honorable mention, too late to cut deals now. Oh well!

By: Bob Irwin

Bob Irwin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:16:11 +0000

Since both of my granfathers worked for the railroad, and as a child, I was thrilled to take train trips with my family, I am excited to see that someone is finally seeing the advantage of an HSR. My concern is this. Rail travel (even HSR) is far from a new technology, and once the infrastructure is developed, technology advantages will come. I believe that what we will see is what we call in project management, analysis paralysis, and that five years from now no rail will be laid due to conflicting interests on where the rails go. Our current Interstate system is far from perfect, but had we analized it for twenty years, our economy would not have grown as rapidly as it has. The momentum is now, and unless the American people can see tangible progress, our short attention span will move us on to the next greatest thing. While looking at the shortest distance between two points, we could be concurrently thinking about building more green and vertical business/residential areas adjacent to the new HSR infrastructure. Amtrak has not been successful because they are forced to run routes for which there is no known need. I hope we don’t repeat that mistake to gratify some congressperson.

By: All Aboard! @ iwantanoffer.com - An Online Real Estate Community

All Aboard! @ iwantanoffer.com - An Online Real Estate Community — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:31:26 +0000

[...] from the voters last November for a 10$ billion bond release to begin construction. Please visit Infrastructurist.com to view a map of proposed rails. “Red lines represent projects that are partially funded or [...]

By: Rail Fan

Rail Fan — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:23:07 +0000

Egads, all of this hoopla over “upgrading track to 110 mph” ?
How utterly meaningless, and typical of the new administration.

By: Polish Academy of Science: more knowledge necessary for man-made climate change. « the world __________________

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:23:17 +0000

[...] One Infastructuralist’s stance –bringin mass transit to the US of A. I bet it’ll be the end of my lifetime before something like this is truly reality–with 150+mph rail service spread across the country. [...]

By: High-Speed Rail Plan Update | DailyViz

High-Speed Rail Plan Update | DailyViz — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:57:45 +0000

[...] The Infrastructurist has a map of dozens of high-speed rail projects under consideration by state governments today, some of which are eligible for stimulus funds. The colors indicate the seriousness of planning for the corridors. Red lines represent projects that are partially funded or providing high-speed operation today; pink lines are under intensive state planning and likely to be among the first to receive stimulus funds; green lines are far off but not inconceivable; and blue lines are very unlikely to be built in the next few decades. [...]

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:13:06 +0000

A very interesting map, and I am looking forward to what routes actually do get implemented in the coming years. Particularly if funding for them becomes more structured and consistent in the various TEA bills that will make their way through Congress and the speed begins to approach true high speed rail. One, or rather two, issues I have with the more hopeful map, though. Why does it continue with the notion of segregated corridors when there are obvious nexus points which would provide secondary ‘hubs’ with much greater redundancy and accessibility to areas across the country without much cost.

The Midwest, Texas, and Gulf Coast corridors could seemingly all connect to each other at Nashville, TN. The Texas pathway, which would have to travel the longest extension, would entail bringing Memphis into the system as well. Certainly not the most burgeoning metropolis, but hardly an area that should be overlooked when bringing it into the fold would have those great secondary benefits. The same, though to a lesser degree, with connecting the Midwest corridor and the North East corridor by connecting Pittsburgh with Philadelphia. I doubt you’d get many people riding from Chicago to New York given the distance, but the range would be competitive for someone starting out in Cleveland. Or Pittsburgh, for that matter. The 500-600 mile radius governing what to connect with where economically certainly needs to be taken into account, but it shouldn’t be rigidly fixed only at Chicago and New York, ignoring the needs of people in between to go to areas in between. Though not to complain about it too much since, as a Chicagoan, I’ve got mine, Jack.

By: Ernie Tedeschi | Lobster Stuffed With Tacos

Ernie Tedeschi | Lobster Stuffed With Tacos — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:07:55 +0000

Yes, America is Dense Enough for High Speed Rail….

President Obama unveiled his strategy for high speed rail (HSR) yesterday. Infrastructurist has a good overview of what’s on the table at the national level.
Others who have more expertise in transportation engineering are better sources of the c…

By: Matthew Yglesias » HSR Proposals Map

Matthew Yglesias » HSR Proposals Map — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:14:36 +0000

[...] at the Infrastructurist they’ve made this useful zoomable map of various high-speed rail proposals including the official DOT corridors but also some other [...]

By: The Bike Pittsburgh Blog Archives » The Headlines: 4.21.09

The Bike Pittsburgh Blog Archives » The Headlines: 4.21.09 — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:37:01 +0000

[...] A cool map of high speed rail in the US and related information Infrastructurist [...]

By: admin

admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:24:53 +0000

David -

Click on the route lines — that offers some additional information.

For instance, regarding your question about Temple, TX: http://www.thsrtc.com/

-Jebediah

By: David

David — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:14:30 +0000

Agreed, interesting map. Gets to the imagination and gets people thinking, “why there,” as well as “why-not there?” as lamented by the Matthew Yglesias link under Daily Dig just below this post.

It would be useful to include a by-line or a source tag for the information used to determine the ’seriousness of planning’ presented here, though. For example - I’m familiar with both the North Carolina and Texas efforts and would categorize them both on the same level - as wants, with some university level studies, but not quite at the level of State studies. (Unless you are going to count the Texas’ Trans-Texas Corridors thing which got the kibosh last year. I wouldn’t.)

Also, the illustrated routes for Texas shown on the google overlay are clearly different from rail map shown at the president’s press conference announcing High-Speed Rail corridors for study funding. As the Yglesias link (again) in fact bemoans, there is no link shown between Dallas and Houston on the Presidential map, yet a version of such a connection, elsewhere referred to as the Texas triangle is clearly shown on the google overlay presented here.

But densities to support HSR in Texas? Ouch. And never mind that when you zoom in on the map it shows the linkup for the Texas triangle in Temple. Temple, Texas? I would like to see the reasoning there.

By: Will

Will — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:58:53 +0000

This is the best information I’ve seen compiled on where the true likely High speed rail projects will be in this country. Instead of looking at the government map of potential corridors, this user made map looks at how much local governments are committing to these projects. I think that the administration is much more in sync with the interests of local governments communicated on the user map for making funding decisions than they are with their official corridor map. Nice job. I’d love to see greater detail with proposed alignments for where the track would actually be improved.