So many people in the US are knuckleheads when it comes to learning from what other countries have tried and found that works. If we can get HSR zipping between Sacramento and Bakersfield I think people will start coming around. Especially if they need to go somewhere in the Valley when the tule fog has settled in and cars are piling up along the highways.

When I’m in Bangkok riding the SkyTrain I continually wonder why the hell we don’t have this sort of system in US cities.

But how knows..

I wouldn’t bet on the U.S. being the first country to implement the technology above if it gets to that stage, though. (Note: my master’s is in city planning, almost specializing in transportation planning, and i’ve got a friend working on the CA HSR project :D)

CA is facing the need to either expand airports and highways or build HSR. At this point HSR seems to be the cheaper solution. This isn’t as much of a transportation option as in the east, it’s more of a forced choice.

And a good deal of the funding for HSR in CA will be coming from private sources. The train will be run on a profit basis and in competition with the airlines. Highways would have to be widened with taxpayer dollars with no payback. New airports/runways would also be built with tax dollars but should receive a payback via charges to users.

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I’m loving this idea of transfer cars. They could run as “locals” between smaller cities along the route and hook up with the ‘big train’ from time to time. The main train could hold speed for hundreds of miles.

A transfer-off car could be attached before the train approached the next station giving departing passengers time to move to the rear of the train. As the train approaches the station that transfer car could detach and roll into the station. At the same time a departing transfer-on car could be accelerating along the siding taking passengers to catch the train.
The transfer-on could stay attached and become a transfer-off car for the next station.

Given the total lack of commitment to modernizing the US rail system the first change required to move forward is perception.

To change perception requires an experience. We need to modernize one heavily traveled corridor to demonstrate this experience. The models for doing so are neither futuristic nor far fetched. They are up and running in Europe and Asia. The US is far behind. We use to pioneer, we use to be first. We use to demonstrate what the future holds. Now we drag behind. Why can’t we do one better?

The northeast corridor with it’s densely populated areas, traffic congestion, and the unfriendly sky’s of todays air travel offers up the perfect convergence of inconvenience. A great opportunity to demonstrate what the future of rail travel can be.

Amtrak Acela falls short due to the fact it runs on a rail corridor built during the the days of the stage coach. Before we require moving platforms we need a modern rail corridor capable of supporting high speed.