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White House: $8.2B for 10 major rail projects including US' first high-speed rail
(www.whitehouse.gov)
this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2023
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A great start!!
100% agreed with dedicated Amtrak alignments
MSR would be fantastic. If I had 120mph option for regional travel I would use it all the time. I used to commute from Portland to Seattle and it would be incredible to not have to fly
I don't know the tipping point (distance of trip in miles) at which air travel becomes better time-wise. Obviously coast to coast routes. Probably shorter routes too. But anything regional is a no-brainer at 120+ mph. HSR becomes even better
Main obvious challenge IMO is not the mechanics or the math. HSR/MSR takes a lot of political capital for a long time, which is hard when there's so many things competing for that capital
It needs sustained investment. Even if we get a two steps forward one step back situation, though, I'll take it!!
Conventional wisdom is that airlines break even with true HSR (220MPH ish) at around 400-450 miles and have it beat by 500. But I also think that's only accounting for time and not accounting for the incredibly enshittified experience that is flying these days.
I'd gladly have my trip take a few extra hours if it meant not dealing with airline bullshit
There's an argument against planes due to carbon emissions too, so if that was included in the price I think many would be inclined to take rail instead.
We need to nationalize our rail.. What Regan did to it was absolutely idiotic, and completely devastated the economies of many small towns.
Speaking from a European perspective, with an existing rail network that mostly works: above about 300-400km (200-250 mi), the train starts hemorrhaging passengers to flight. Flight is still massively cheaper. Unless that equation changes, trains will always be an also-available regional/long distance travel mode.