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Published on December 30th, 2009 | by Zachary Shahan

13

North Carolina and Virginia Ask for $5 Billion for High-Speed Rail (but Not the Only Ones)

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December 30th, 2009 by Zachary Shahan 

People in North Carolina and Virginia must have seen what’s going on in China with high-speed rail and decided they wanted some of that. They are now requesting over $5 billion in funding for high-speed rail.

Actually, as a former resident of both North Carolina and Virginia professionally and personally involved in this topic, I can say they have been working on this topic and wanting better rail for quite a long time.

Now, though, with the federal government pledging $8 billion in stimulus funding for high-speed rail, they may have their chance.

However, they are not the only ones who want this money!

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North Carolina (NC) and Virginia (VA) are requesting over $5 billion of the $8 billion the government has pledged and both are nearly finished with preliminary environmental studies (something the Federal Railroad Administration favors when deciding who to give the money to).

Rob Kulat, a spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration, says that in total states have requested $57 billion for high-speed rail networks!

Yoav Hagler, an associate planner for America 2050, says that the places with the best chances of getting the money may actually be in California, the Midwest and the Northeast. According to a report he co-authored, the routes with the greatest demand are San Francisco to Los Angeles, Washington to Boston, and Chicago to Minneapolis, Detroit and St. Louis.

He says, “These are the places that have the population, the economies and the existing travel markets to really support these systems.”

However, North Carolina and Virginia have done a lot of preparatory work and have been planning for this opportunity for years. With the Northeast not as far along in environmental study, they may be able to edge the Northeast out of some of that money. They may have a chance at getting at least some of their $5.3 billion request. Patrick Simmons, North Carolina’s rail division director, says, “We’ve been progressing down a pathway that would lead us to this day.”

The money is expected to start being given out in late January or early February. With this amount of interest in clean transportation projects that would also create tens of thousands of jobs each, perhaps more money will go in this direction in the future.

As exciting as this opportunity is for people who want high-speed rail in the US, the high-speed rail we are talking about here does not quite compare to the high-speed rail in China, Japan, France, and Germany. NC and VA’s high-speed rail would average 86 mph (compared to its current 54 mph). China’s newest high-speed train averages 217 mph, Japan’s best averages 172 mph, France’s 151 mph, and Germany’s 144 mph.

I think if we want to compete with other major economies and societies, the US needs to raise this $8 billion funding to something exponentially higher. Clearly, states are waiting for the money. I think this is a good start, though — takes a little longer for trains to get going, but once they pick up speed….

via planetizen and citizen-times

Related Stories:

1) World’s Fastest High-Speed Train is Now Running in China

2) Super High Speed Rail for China — $4 Billion Purchase

3) Thank Public Transit for Your Quick(er) Trip Home: Public Transit Saves Us Hundreds of Millions of Hours a Year

4) Transit Use Boom, but in Some Surprising Cities

Image Credit 1: zizzybaloobah via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Image Credit 2: Thomas Hawk via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Image Credit 3: Ian Lewis via flickr under a Creative Commons license

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About the Author

spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.


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  • edgar molina

    I think is the smartest idea in the las few years,first i will get, the military complex involved

    lockheed martin, nortrop grumman, boeing, sykorsky, that way instead of creating unnesesary wars the money can be shifted to the economy,think 1 trillion dollars plus interest spent so far on a war .results, deep resession, foreclosures, unemplyment, and we are spending money like crazy, also, our goverment needs 700 billions to finance the buying oil from other countries every single year that is why our dollar devalue it,also more people will have to walk more helping to reduce weight, also, less traffic, our roads bridges will last longer, also will create thousands of jobs,,, I think is a win- win situation if i have to pay more taxes i will gladly doit

  • edgar molina

    I think is the smartest idea in the las few years,first i will get, the military complex involved

    lockheed martin, nortrop grumman, boeing, sykorsky, that way instead of creating unnesesary wars the money can be shifted to the economy,think 1 trillion dollars plus interest spent so far on a war .results, deep resession, foreclosures, unemplyment, and we are spending money like crazy, also, our goverment needs 700 billions to finance the buying oil from other countries every single year that is why our dollar devalue it,also more people will have to walk more helping to reduce weight, also, less traffic, our roads bridges will last longer, also will create thousands of jobs,,, I think is a win- win situation if i have to pay more taxes i will gladly doit

  • edgar molina

    I think is the smartest idea in the las few years,first i will get, the military complex involved

    lockheed martin, nortrop grumman, boeing, sykorsky, that way instead of creating unnesesary wars the money can be shifted to the economy,think 1 trillion dollars plus interest spent so far on a war .results, deep resession, foreclosures, unemplyment, and we are spending money like crazy, also, our goverment needs 700 billions to finance the buying oil from other countries every single year that is why our dollar devalue it,also more people will have to walk more helping to reduce weight, also, less traffic, our roads bridges will last longer, also will create thousands of jobs,,, I think is a win- win situation if i have to pay more taxes i will gladly doit

  • Hitoshi Maruyama

    One thing I would like to emphasize to both NC and VA people that they should study the history of the Japanese high speed train systems of nearly a half century. There are a lot of things that American engineers and operational mangers. If you look at Amtrak’s operations, it is very clear that it has shown clearly lack of good management technology for high speed train systems. So send many young people to Japan and learn about the problems they had and how to solve them every each one. I suggest them to stay there at least five years to not only technical aspects but also learn its train-based culture. Without learning the Japanese high speed train history, they would repeat them .

    Particularly I strongly urge them to learn the culture of Japanese with it, they were able to establish non-accident record in the past and still extend it. Accidents in the US railroad systems are too excessive to Japanese standard.

    Hitoshi Maruyama, a graduate of Va. Tech

  • Hitoshi Maruyama

    One thing I would like to emphasize to both NC and VA people that they should study the history of the Japanese high speed train systems of nearly a half century. There are a lot of things that American engineers and operational mangers. If you look at Amtrak’s operations, it is very clear that it has shown clearly lack of good management technology for high speed train systems. So send many young people to Japan and learn about the problems they had and how to solve them every each one. I suggest them to stay there at least five years to not only technical aspects but also learn its train-based culture. Without learning the Japanese high speed train history, they would repeat them .

    Particularly I strongly urge them to learn the culture of Japanese with it, they were able to establish non-accident record in the past and still extend it. Accidents in the US railroad systems are too excessive to Japanese standard.

    Hitoshi Maruyama, a graduate of Va. Tech

  • Peter

    $57 billion nationwide is a cheap $200 per resident. But we must choose the routes to facilitate long trips, such as my recent Seattle-Salinas, CA trip on Amtrak.

  • Peter

    $57 billion nationwide is a cheap $200 per resident. But we must choose the routes to facilitate long trips, such as my recent Seattle-Salinas, CA trip on Amtrak.

  • Shannon

    Cool photos, especially the first one!

  • Shannon

    Cool photos, especially the first one!

  • Shannon

    Cool photos, especially the first one!

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