High-Speed Rail Investment in U.S. Would Result in $26.4 Billion Net Benefits by 2040

July 17th, 2012 by James Ayre

Washington, D.C. – While critics of implementing a high-speed rail program in America say the U.S. cannot afford to build it, new information released today shows that the net benefits to investment far exceed the cost. The report titled “Opportunity Cost of Inaction: High-Speed Rail and High Performance Passenger Rail Service” was released [last week] at a Congressional briefing by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). It shows that building a high-speed rail program in the U.S. results in $26.4 billion in net benefits over the next 40 years.

According to the report, the U.S. Census estimates the population will grow by more than 100 million people in the next 40 years. As the population grows, increased pressure will be placed on the nation’s already crumbling infrastructure. With a complementary high-speed rail service, this will help mitigate the cost of maintenance, replacement and the capacity expansion needs of airport runways, highways and roadways. In many cases expansion will be difficult because of the lack of land mass.

“As we look at the implementation of high-speed rail in America, we must recognize the value it brings to help sustain and complement our other modes of transportation,” said APTA President and CEO Michael Melaniphy. “It is critical that policy makers take a leadership role in moving high-speed rail forward to capture the billions of dollars of economic, mobility, energy and environmental benefits.”

The report shows investment in high-speed and high performance passenger rail not only aids in solving our capacity issues, but helps mitigate overall transportation costs and helps our roadways and airports work more efficiently.

The strain on our transportation system by travelers will result in increased congestion and delays which will lead to billions of dollars lost in lost opportunities in a globally competitive market.

“By building high-speed rail, we not only offer mobility benefits to those who ride the rails, but to those who continue to fly or drive by helping to alleviate the strain on our overburdened network,” said Melaniphy.

There are substantial net benefits to regions if we invest in high-speed rail. The net benefit to investing in the California region is $8.2 billion over 40 years. The Midwest is $11.7 billion, the Northwest Corridor is $5.5 billion and the Pacific Northwest is $1.1 billion.

Additional factors in determining the net benefits include economic output generated, tax revenue generated, emissions savings and others. Numerous additional social and mobility benefits are not quantified in the report.

“This study quantifies just the tip of the iceberg and is a very conservative estimate of the net benefits resulting from implementing high performance trains in America,” said Melaniphy. “We must recognize the positive growth potential and benefits high-speed rail can provide to our citizens.”

In addition to APTA releasing the report to Congress, railway representatives from eight countries were on Capitol Hill today to brief members of Congress on the high-speed rail industry worldwide. These leaders were in Washington as part of the UIC 8th World Congress on High-Speed Rail, which begins the following day in Philadelphia.

To read the complete report visit www.apta.com.

Source: American Public Transport Association

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Tags: high speed rail benefits, high speed rail financial benefits, high speed rail net benefits, high speed rail us, high speed rail us benefits, high speed rail us financial benefits, high-speed rail investment benefits, mass transit investment benefits, mass transit U.S.

About the Author

James Ayre 's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy. You can follow his work on Google+.

algalli

If you want some bang for the buck upgrade the bridges from DC to NY so that the Auto train could come further north. Today it is restricted because the high cars cannot get under bridges. If Auto Train had a terminus near Philadelphia or NY its ridership would explode.
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BadDealARS

Regardless, Greeceafornia has zero money
and this project will be partially built on borrowed money, thus interest and
principle will immediately eat up that $26 b so called benefit!!! Who says this
a bunch of lib greenies??? The big
picture is failure because it will never be done correctly & between
government dreamers and greenies, it will automatically create a disaster, forgone
conclusion always.
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  and expanding less efficient (yep, less efficient = moneysuck) roads for that corridor would not require loans?
  
  or should people just sit in traffic twice as long as they do now? since that’s so efficient and economically advantageous. (i.e. probably one of CA’s biggest problems)
  - BadDealARS
    
    Zachary, my response is – no response because you said nothing to response to, sorry.
highdesertslim

I’m all for high-speed rail…as long as it’s privately-funded like the airlines are. Otherwise, my tax dollars will be subsidizing little Suzy taking a trip from Chicago to Miami to see her grandmother. Why do you think ALL of the freight rail carriers were out of the passenger business by the 1970’s? IT’S NOT A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODEL. And as far as having long-term pay-backs, might want to check on the financial health of Spain, and then read how devastating high-speed rail has been to out of the way communities in that country and neighbor France, as the trains do NOTHING for the communities that might be on the route, but do not have stations. Then again, we need to re-build and replace our roads, bridges, water systems, and schools first. Let Warren Buffet and Willard Romney and other private equity investors build high-speed rail, not me, an American tax-payer (and rail fan!).
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  do you really think air transport doesn’t get massive subsidies?
  - Ross
    
    For a start the report mentions $40 billion for a new federal air traffic control system. It also suggests that by freeing up capacity on shorter distance routes the airlines could divert resources to more lucrative longer haul flights.
    
    It would be great to think another volume was about to be written in the inspiring history of rail in America.
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  and did you catch that the net result of investing in rail is a + on the balance sheet? for society.
- Bob_Wallace
  
  You forgot to include the additional airport development that taxpayers will need to provide if we don’t shift some of the traffic to rail.
  
  Slow passenger rail is not a sustainable business model (see, that can be written in small case) for other than shorter trips along very crowded corridors. But you can’t extend that to high speed rail where people can get to their destinations as fast and in more comfort than flying.
  
  Spain’s economy did not falter because of HSR. It also did not falter due to renewable energy. Spain ran into a housing bubble and crappy financial industry problem as happened here in the US. Please don’t use false information in an attempt to push your point.
  
  As for the passed-by communities in France. My experience there a few months ago was that they are using a combination of fast and slow rail. Obviously the fastest trains are not going to stop at every village. The same is true of slow rail with its ‘express’ and ‘local’ trains.
- MB
  
  I am very tired of hearing this argument. Private enterprise does NOT FUND ANYTHING related to infrastructure without government support and incentives FIRST. Railroads back in the early 1900’s – government subsidies. High speed internet – government subsidies including state and local tax breaks for companies. Highways – government money. Airports and runways – again, government tax breaks, subsidies….you name it, the government ALWAYS puts in significant investments to infrastructure first, then private enterprise comes along second. It has always been this way, and I doubt it will change anytime soon. Government provides the bulk of investment to get the infrastructure up and running, then private enterprise can run the trains for a profit.
  - http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
    
    Thanks. Me, too!