• The battle for federal HSR dollars has a new contender: A Western High Speed Rail Alliance brings together five planning agencies who want to thread rails through the “intermountain West” (Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Reno, and Vegas). (Denver Business Journal)
• Heathrow’s operator says an HSR link would increase demand for flights from the west London airport, which means that residents nearby would be the unwitting victims of increased air and noise pollution. Sounds like a tricky ploy to get that third runway built… (ThisIsLondon - pic via)
• Brazil will open bidding in January for the construction of its Rio-São Paolo high-speed route; the winning firm will have until 2015 to complete the project and will have concession rights for 40 years. (Latin American Herald Tribune)
• The National Journal brings together a bevy of heavy-hitters in transportation, infrastructure, and politics to reflect on what we’ve learned from the Recovery Act and how those lessons can be applied to a new stimulus program. (National Journal)
• A Californian says California deserves HSR funding the most, then sweats a little because Florida is in the game. (CA Progress Report)
• A Las Vegas network does a cheesy segment comparing the potential MagLev (”It’s like a plane on the ground”) to the Desert Express. They push hard for Anaheim and needlessly mock a small city in the process. (Fox 5 News LV)
• A glum columnist laments that Hong Kong’s recently-approved HSR line, long in the making, is arousing protests because of property value issues. Apparently, 99% of the population is priced out of the property market. (China Daily)
December 11th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
The Heathrow people are saying that to prevent noise pollution, they must build a third runway instead of bring people in by rail?
I’ve always suspected Britain is on a different planet, but now it’s confirmed.
December 12th, 2009 at 2:37 am
Sorry to be a dick, but it’s the second time in the last week: São Paulo.
December 12th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Whether they build a third runway or not, connecting Heathrow to the rest of Britain via HSR will increase traffic from the airport, because it will become an even more efficient international hub. HSR would replace small commuter planes, allowing the airlines to pack in more widebodies in. The effect has already been seen in Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Madrid — all of which are home to major hubs that double as HSR stations. As their short-haul traffic has plunged, their passenger numbers have risen thanks to an increased number of long-haul flights, which leads to better economics for the airlines and in turn more destinations and an airport that’s even more attractive to passengers. The carbon, noise, and pollution savings come from the smaller domestic airports that lose flights because HSR connects those cities instead. There are plenty of studies on this — it makes perfect, albeit counterintuitive, sense. This isn’t some scam by the government.
December 12th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
I wouldn’t say I am “sweating” Florida’s involvement - just that California needs to remember that we have other worthy competitors for the funding out there, so we need to stay on track with our own plans, and that our Congressional delegation in particular needs to step up on this.
December 12th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Las Vegas needs to be on a spur off the California system. Same steel wheels technology, same top speed (220mph). Direct service from Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Francisco via trackage rights on the California network. No transfers in he High Desert. No relief airport in the Ivanpah Valley, use the land for a solar power plant instead.
DesertXpress is 90% of what’s needed, the project just has to be tweaked so the track run from Barstow to a wye at Mojave instead of - or in addition to - tracks out to Victorville.
Maglev is a pipedream, there won’t be an available right of way for it between San Bernardino to Pomona because UPRR isn’t playing ball with CHSRA. Instead, they’ll almost certainly have to cobble together a greenfield right of way involving the I-10 median for part of the route. Besides, the infrastructure for maglev would cost 3 times as much as a suitably modified DesertXpress project.
December 13th, 2009 at 1:56 am
When did they add a median to I10? Last time I was on it there was a busway there.
December 13th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Anyone know what’s up with this?
http://www.vegasxpress.com
It gets my vote for the best website of 1996!
December 13th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
I actually worked for Bombardier building the Aceal trains. The technology with high speed rail is truly amazing.
December 14th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
I find it intriguing that the argument in London is about connecting Heathrow to the HSR network. IMHO, using rail to move people to the airport is a smart thing to do. What about connecting Heathrow to other London area airports and then using the connection to re-distribute the flights - focus long distance international at Heathrow and short hops at say, Stanstead or Luton, that don’t have the same restrictions as Heathrow. Using the airports as a network, connected by high speed rail. Trains for connecting flights would need to originate and terminate within the airport behind the security cordon.
December 14th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
@Future Schema
The problem with that plan is that you’ll utterly wreck the economics of the airline industry, which, like any other business, depends in some part on economies of scale. This is why British Airways CEO Willie Walsh has argued against the HSR option — because he needs the connecting traffic to make his long haul economics work. I’m not sure about that — the airlines are in favor for HSR between SF and LA, I believe, because they lose money serving Fresno — but by breaking up the efficiency of connecting through one hub you’d probably scare away passengers and wreck BA’s business model. Personally, if what you described came to pass, I’d rather just connect through Schiphol. (Or Frankfurt, CDG, or Madrid.) Of course, BA’s business model is so badly broken already that your vision is slowly coming to pass…
December 15th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Touché, Natan. Thank you for pointing out the error.