High Speed Rail

OK, let’s take a break from the political ranting for a post or two. A friend of mine asked me this morning what my opinion is on high speed rail. I told him that I supported the idea, but probably not in the form that most people are thinking of.

Most of the plans that I’ve seen for HSR seem to take for granted that the system will be basically set up like the existing passenger rail structure, just faster. Unfortunately, I don’t think that will work.

I think that we need to set the system up with regional hubs spaced out throughout the country. True HSR (180-200 mph) would run between the hubs with slower (100 mph) local services running to the other stops in that region. If a local government wanted to provide even more coverage, it could do so by using light rail or busses.

Let me provide an example of how the system might be set up in one region. I’m going to look at the states of Florida and Georgia. The first thing to do would be to pick two major hubs that are strategically located. I would choose Orlando and Atlanta, which are approximately 400 miles apart. True HSR would run between the two hubs with no stops. You would be looking at a travel time of 2 to 2 ½ hours, which is very competitive with airlines, once airport time is figured in. From Orlando, you would have local services running the length of the peninsula from Miami to Tampa to Tallahassee to Jacksonville. A run to Miami with no stops would take approximately 2 hours. Add in stops for a true local service (in the railroad sense of the word) and you would probably push it to 3 ½ hours, which is still better than driving. Atlanta would serve the entire state of Georgia with runs into the Florida Panhandle.

As a further example of how a local service might look, let’s look at a prospective run from Miami to Jacksonville. You would start in Miami heading north with stops in West Palm Beach, Melbourne, Orlando, St. Augustine, and finally Jacksonville. Local governments would be providing the intermediate services between those stops. For instance, the Miami stop would serve from, say, Homestead to Ft. Lauderdale. West Palm from Lauderdale to Stuart. Melbourne from Stuart to Titusville. Orlando would be the big connection with the train arriving to connect with runs to Atlanta, Tampa and Tallahassee. You would also have services from Lakeland to Daytona and from Mount Dora to Rockledge. St. Augustine would cover from Titusville to Palm Harbor. And Jacksonville would cover from Palm Harbor to Savannah.

That’s a lot to digest, especially if you aren’t very familiar with the geography of Florida’s East Coast. Basically, the 100 mph local service would have stops every 50-75 miles in decent size towns, with local governments providing services between those stops. If local governments want to use light rail, that’s great. If they want to use busses, that’s fine to. Even if they choose not to provide service, that’s their prerogative.

How would this be funded? I would propose that both the federal government and state governments fund it. We do a lot in this nation under the common good clause of the Constitution. This is a project that really would be for the common good. It would reduce highway maintenance expenses (by reducing the number of vehicles on the roads and hence reducing the wear and tear), it would help the environment, and it would help to make our transportation system more efficient.

I’m sure that some would ask how it makes the transportation system more efficient. It’s actually pretty simple. When we travel, we really have four distinct regions that we travel to: local, short range, medium range and long distance. Local travel is that involved with going to work, shopping or to visit friends. It is best handled by individual transportation, usually an automobile. The short range is to neighboring cities or towns. For me, in Winter Springs, just north of Orlando, that would a trip to Daytona for the races or the beach, or maybe a trip to Tampa. It is basically, out and back, a day trip distance. Medium range trips would be about the same distance as that between hubs in the proposed system, about 400-500 miles from home. This is the range that is currently a one day, all day drive to get there. And long distance is anything that would take a couple of hours in the air to get there.

As I see it, the local stuff is best served by individuals moving themselves about. Short range trips would be best served by a comprehensive light rail or bus system. We really don’t have too many problems in the US with trips that are of short range or less. The medium range trips are the real inefficiency of the US transportation system. Currently the void is filled by airlines or private vehicles, neither of which is the designed for that kind of travel. HSR would free up the airlines to concentrate on long distance travel, where they’re most efficient and would take care off the highways.

In the medium range distances, HSR is competitive with airlines, when the time wasted in airports is taken into account. Removing this waste of resources should be an important goal of the US. The more time and money we can save, the more competitive US businesses will become and the more enjoyment our citizens will get from traveling around our nation.