“Faster,” say the voters
Last year, I discussed the prospects of high speed rail in Texas. At that time, there were 9 countries that had built new 300 km/h (180 mph) intercity city rail lines: France, Germany, Belgium, Britain, Spain, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Since then, a tenth — China — has joined the list.
This week, California voters decided to add the United States, approving a $10 billion bond measure to build a new 220 mph line from Downtown San Francisco to Downtown Los Angeles, expand connecting rail transit systems, and grade separate some adjacent freight rail lines. The route has been chosen and environmental reports are complete, but the project is still dependent on federal funding. The proposed trip time from SF to LA is 2 1/2 hours. That’s the same as Paris-London, Paris-Marseille, or New York-Washington today, and in those corridors rail carries more people than the airlines do. If we built high speed rail in Texas, Houston to Dallas, Austin, or San Antonio could be less than 2 hours.
Meanwhile, voters also approved light rail extensions in Seattle (after having defeated a light rail plus highway measure a year ago), a new commuter rail line north of San Francisco, a streetcar line in Sacramento, subway and light rail extensions in Los Angeles, more commuter rail funding in Albuquerque, and an elevated rail line in Honolulu.
Talk high speed rail in our forums.