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White House: $8.2B for 10 major rail projects including US' first high-speed rail
(www.whitehouse.gov)
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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.
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.
We need to nationalize our rail.. What Regan did to it was absolutely idiotic, and completely devastated the economies of many small towns.