PM NETWORK July 2009 WWW.PMI.ORG
THE UNITED STATES is finally joining the train gang. After years of focusing almost all its transportation development dollars on roads and highways, the United States is switching tracks, setting a course to develop high-speed passenger rail projects around the country.
For years, plans have been drafted for high-speed railways in every region
| >> NOT SO FAST |
| 90 miles (145 kilometers) per hour or faster |
| The U.S. definition of high-speed rail |
| 133 miles (214 kilometers) per hour |
| The speed the French TGV train travels |
| 217 miles (214 kilometers) per hour |
| The speed Chinese trains travel along a new 75-mile (121-kilometer) route between Beijing and Tianjin built for the 2008 Olympics |
| 268 miles (214 kilometers) per hour |
| The speed Chinese magnetic levitation trains travel at between Shanghai and the city's airport. |
And much of the credit goes to U.S. President Barack Obama—and the recession.
The speed Chinese trains travel along a new 75-mile (121-kilometer) route between Beijing and Tianjin built for the 2008 Olympics
The president's stimulus package includes $8 billion to fund high-speed and intercity passenger-rail projects, plus an additional $ 1 billion a year for five years as part of his proposed transportation budget.
The speed Chinese magnetic levitation trains travel at between Shanghai and the city's airport.
The money has yet to be allocated to specific projects, but 10 corridors, each 100 to 600 miles (161 to 966 kilometers) long, have been identified, and the cash could be going out shortly. "What we need is a smart transportation system equal to the needs of the 21st century, a system that reduces travel times and increases mobility, a system that reduces congestion and boosts productivity, a system that reduces destructive emissions and creates jobs," President Obama said in announcing the plan.
And he added: "There's no reason why we can't do this."
| >> PICKING UP SPEED |
|
Most people imagine high-speed rail as bullet trains whisking through the night, a blur of silver and blue hitting speeds never before imagined riding the rails.
In a way that image is valid, but not for reasons people might think. Much of the increased velocity of high-speed rail will come not from technological advances, but from basic improvements such as redesigned track infrastructure, grade separation and better signaling. And all of those are largely "shovel-ready" projects—and have been for years, says James P. RePass, National Corridors Initiative. "What matters for high-speed rail isn't top speed, it's average speed," he says. Most U.S. rail systems are stymied by the constant need for trains to slow to a crawl every time they near a street crossing-grinding down to 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 kilometers) per hour several times over the course of a trip. In the United States, the high-speed Acela Express, operated by Amtrak as part of the Northeast Corridor, is capable of clipping along at 150 miles (241 kilometers) per hour, but track conditions and other rail traffic mean it's traveling at a far slower pace. To eliminate the need for crossings, most high-speed rail programs include grade-separation projects in which tracks are raised or lowered from street level, through the use of tunnels and bridges. The National Corridor initiative is calling for a modular design approach to lower the cost and time of upgrading the crossing projects, Mr. RePass says. "The real gains in efficiencies from high-speed rail isn't the ability to achieve 175 miles (282 kilometers) per hour or higher top speeds," he says. "It's to boost average speeds for the non-Northeast Corridor Amtrak trains that average 40 miles (64 kilometers) per hour." |
Break Out The Shovels
President Obama acknowledged that getting the United States on thefast track is a "long-term project," but pointed to more advanced train systems in China, Japan, France and Spain.
"This is not some fanciful, pie-in-the-sky vision of the future. It is now," he said. "The problem is, it's been happening elsewhere, not here."
Now it appears the United States might not be the caboose forever.
"It's an exciting time to be involved in rail projects," says James P. RePass, CEO of the National Corridors Initiative, a Boston, Massachusetts, USA-based non-profit advocacy group. "For decades, the United States has seen transportation projects as synonymous with highway
construction. As a consequence, we have an enormous highway infrastructure but far fewer resources for rail."
Despite the preference for the open highway, plans have been developed for dozens of rail projects, track upgrades and new lines. Most never came to fruition, but the pre-planning makes them "shovel-ready" projects that fit quite nicely into the U.S. stimulus bill's criteria for project investment. The projects also benefir from the fact that many of them will be developed in areas where old track once existed, which means the railroads already own the right of way.
"It's so much easier to put track back where it used to be than to engineer new highways," Mr. RePass explains.
The 800-mile (1,287-kilometer) California high-speed rail project to serve the state's major metropolitan areas is the most likely candidate to take the lead on the fast track to development. Last November, Californian voters approved a $9.95 billion bond to launch the project— before the stimulus bill was even conceived. Already, some contracts have been inked.
"If it is indeed built, the bullet train project puts California ahead of other states," says Mr. RePass.
Other projects angling for a piece of the action include routes going through major urban centers, including parts of the Pacific Northwest, the Gulf Coast, the Southeast and the East Coast. There's also a proposed Chicago, Illinois hub connecting several Midwest cities.
"If I was a project manager for a national rail project right now, I'd be so motivated," says Mr. RePass. "We are on the verge of reinventing America, and the people leading these projects are about to make history."