Medium-speed rail
Don’t get your hopes up for “high” speed:
There has been a veritable parade of officials taking trips to Europe to check out high speed rail and tout its benefits to the public. The Midwest High Speed Rail Association put together a trip to Spain for its members. Governor Jim Doyle of Wisconsin took a trip to Spain as well. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood was recently in France and did a photo-op featuring him in the cab of a TGV train.
But the rail systems proposed in the United States are NOTHING AT ALL like the ones in Spain or France. Those system travel at nearly 200MPH on dedicated, fully electrified trackage, with light trainsets, operating with an array of passenger amenities and 99%+ on time reliability. There is a grand total of one proposal in the whole US that is like this, namely California’s.
The proposed Midwest system is typical of what we see around the country. It would operate at a top speed of only 110MPH, half that of Europe, with average speeds much lower. Its travel time would be similar to driving, meaning door to door journey times would be worse. Worst of all, it would be operated by Amtrak.
Still, this is faster than the Heartland Flyer, which putters along at 79 mph in Oklahoma, dropping to 59 mph in Texas.
And in some states — not here yet — there’s another alternative already available:
If you want a 4-5 hour trip between Chicago and St. Louis, you can get it today cheaply, conveniently, and with wi-fi (are you listening Amtrak??????) on Megabus. Indeed, Megabus has proven popular from everyone from 60 year old Moms coming to visit their kids in Chicago to hipsters making road trips. Best of all, Megabus is here today, with no government spending.
Amtrak service from Chicago to St. Louis runs about 5½ hours; you can drive it (I-55) in 4:49, says Google Maps.
fillyjonk »
28 June 2009 · 5:12 pm
You know, I wonder, if high-speed rail was a feature of Lower Armpit* (rather than Europe), if our representatives would be so eager to take trips there to view it.
(*that’s the most family friendly version of “an undesirable place to be” that I can come up with at this time. The other ones I know have initials like BFE…)
CGHill »
28 June 2009 · 5:16 pm
They certainly don’t have it in Argentina.
fillyjonk »
28 June 2009 · 5:20 pm
Well, yes, but he apparently had other reasons to go there. Too bad for him (but not for us) that he couldn’t dissemble for a few more days and claim he was on some fact-finding junket.
Akaky »
28 June 2009 · 5:36 pm
Hasn’t anybody noticed that the US is considerably larger than Europe is? I mean, think about it for a minute. All those super fast rail lines connect city to city and the cities are, by American standards, fairly close to one another. There’s no Moscow to Lisbon bullet train, or even a Paris to Warsaw one, as far as I know. You think there might be a reason for that? As to the question of allowing Amtrak to operate a railroad, we all know better than that, dont we? Or, at least, we should.
CGHill »
28 June 2009 · 5:38 pm
None of that matters. It’s European, and Europe is where they didn’t invent either McDonald’s or Walmart, so it must be good.
Me, I don’t object to congressional junkets to Ibiza and Paris; what I object to is the fact that the bastards actually come back.
Jeffro »
28 June 2009 · 6:31 pm
HSR won’t happen until it’s separated from freight rails.
Brian J. »
28 June 2009 · 9:13 pm
It’s worse if you need to take a connection. By train, with layover, St. Louis to Milwaukee used to take me about 10 hours. It’s 5.5 to drive it according to actual speeds and not Google map estimations.
Lisa Paul »
28 June 2009 · 10:23 pm
When high-roller Willie Brown was our Mayor, he took a AAA tour to Paris to investigate…public toilet systems.
Okay, so he got a fully paid Paris vacation on our dime. But San Francisco eventually got a full complement of JC Decaux high-tech French outdoor toilets. So Brown says we have to say we got value for our money.
fillyjonk »
29 June 2009 · 7:05 am
Oh, that drive time for I-55? Only if there’s no construction going on. Which, when I lived in Illinois, was pretty much only in the wintertime, which was also when the weather was often bad enough that you couldn’t go the full 65 mph. But whatever.
I spent an entire summer (1998) driving all over Illinois. Everything in Illinois (at least everything I needed to see) is at least 2 hours from everything else.
Dick Stanley »
30 June 2009 · 12:21 am
Freight rails are, indeed, the problem. Since all the American rails are battered by freight cars every day, the passenger trains wouldn’t dare push it up to “high speed.”
CGHill »
1 July 2009 · 10:03 pm
There is now a proposal [pdf] for a genuinely high-speed rail link (220 mph seems high enough to qualify, if they can pull it off) between Chicago and St. Louis.