We’re going to go into the realm of make-believe for a while. Don’t let all the skeptical talk fool you, the realm of make-believe is OK to visit… just don’t live there. This is the place where we let our imaginations run free. We can explore new ideas, link up disparate concepts, and figure out what is worth pursuing and what’s probably only good for the circular file.
In the land of make-believe today, I’d like to explore the idea of a high-speed rail system in the US. How could we make it work?
The US is not really anti-train. We have lots of trains (possibly as many as five or six (kidding!)) and they carry a tremendous amount of cargo. They do so moderately quickly and very safely all things considered. But passenger service in the US is spotty at best.
Amtrak is the US ‘national carrier’, but it’s a private for-profit organization. In 2012, Amtrak had a record 31.2 million passengers. Which is just over 4% that of US airlines (carrying 730 million passengers). No idea how many car passengers were carried in that time frame. And that’s the biggest issue with the US.
The car. We love our cars. For a majority of US citizens, they get a car at the age of 15 or 16 and keep at least one until they die. Some people have multiple cars. There are only certain environments in which it’s generally OK to not have a vehicle.
US cities, for the most part, are based around car travel, not public transportation. Living in Texas, there are metro buses, but one must often drive 10-15 miles to get to the nearest bus stop. It’s just not feasible to walk that distance when the outside temp is in the 100°F+ range. There are few cities with central business districts… and by that I mean, everything happens there and it’s possible to walk almost everywhere in the area.
We don’t have corner grocery stores. We have one major mega-store that handles the traffic for every home for 4-5 miles around. Our homes are designed around once weekly trips to the store, not daily smaller trips (that could be done on a bicycle or walking). We have medical complexes and, if you are lucky, a clinic in a nearby supermarket.
We have neighborhoods with nothing but houses as far as you can see. A friend used to live in such a neighborhood. It took her 40 minutes to get to work and 20 minutes of that was just getting out of her neighborhood and to a main road.
OK, enough whining.
I wonder if we could create a system that would provide the benefits of high speed rail AND let us keep our fascination with cars. And, like most great things, someone else has already done it and is patiently waiting for the US to get around to it.
The Eurotunnel Shuttle. It’s a train. One simply drives their vehicle into the train car, parks, and the train takes them through the English Channel tunnel. It’s an elegant system.
In my dream world, I can drive onto the train here in Austin (or San Antonio as a major hub), then I can turn my car off and go hand out in the lounge above the car hold. I can take the train to any major city in the US in a few hours. It’s not as fast as a plane, but I don’t have to pull all the luggage out of my car (provided that the TSA isn’t involved), when I get to my destination, I have my car to drive around, see the sights, etc.
Like I said, it’s basically been done, just on a smaller scale in Europe. Why can’t we do it in the US?
Because the US is a mish-mash of laws and competing interests. If the train line crosses a state line, the federal government is involved. Plus all of the states and the land-owners, and the counties and cities that the train would pass through or near. Then who would pay for it? Private interests want an income quickly and trains are not known for a fast turn around on investment. I think it’s possible, especially among the heavily traveled corridors (the East Coast, West Coast, Dallas-Houston-San Antonio, etc).
Of course the airlines and car rental places will hate the idea. Even Amtrak has to be involved because I believe that even though they are a private for-profit company, they have federal protection from losing money and specific guaranteed routes.
In other words, way too many cooks in the kitchen, especially when there are competing interests among the members.
It’s a shame. I think that a lot of pollution, carbon dioxide, traffic accidents, and stress could be eliminated this way.
