advocating urbanism in the opportunity city
What will HSR offer and is it worth the cost?
In a comment of his recent article, Tory Gattis asks, “…what will HSR offer that other modes can’t do right now, and is it worth the cost?” Here are my replies.
- Rail offers a globally-proven, time-tested, long-lasting, resilient transportation infrastructure that is cost-competitive with paved highways when accounting for operational fuel costs and averaging over their respective designed lifetimes.
- Rail offers a mode of transit where a professional does the driving which allows the traveler the time to use as [s]he sees fit, unlike the personal automobile. This time should be factored in when comparing the traveler’s costs between traveling by rail and in a personal automobile. Whereas, the reduced personal space on a jet can preclude using travel time industriously.
- HSR (as opposed to conventional passenger rail in the U.S.) offers a grade-separated corridor for most, if not all, of the distance which enhances timeliness of travel and increases passenger safety. Jets, buses and automobiles all fall victim to choke points such as airport gate availability, traffic jams or severe weather delays. Rail travel has highly predictable traffic and can operate in all but the most severe weather.
- Rail offers a third major mode of transportation which will allows:
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- Transportation demand to distribute across the modes. Give the customer a choice.
- Competition across modes of transportation to force efficiencies in all modes.
- Resilience in the event of a halt to regional or nationwide air traffic.
- Special services such as travel for regional sporting events. For example, U of H sports fans could ride the rail to the Cotton Bowl. Buses can not match the speed of HSR and rail passengers aren’t delayed by pseudo-security checkpoints as jet passengers are.
- Special services such as mass evacuations for a natural disaster. For example, Houstonians could ride a train to escape a hurricane when the highways are jammed, or those in the Pacific Northwest could ride a train in case of volcanic ash plumes when jets are diverted or grounded.
- A two-track HSR corridor consumes less than half the real-estate of a four-lane highway on a per-distance basis. This means private land owners are less impacted by new rail construction than new highway construction.
Finally, is it worth the cost? Two private companies with vast experience in HSR believe so. SNCF and JSR are interested in building HSR in Texas‘ population-dense region.
4 Comments
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Rail offers a globally-proven, time-tested, long-lasting, resilient transportation infrastructure that is cost-competitive with paved highways when accounting for operational fuel costs and averaging over their respective designed lifetimes.
That is assuming reasonable load factors. If they started charging for the metro-rail like they charge for buses, would it be cost competitive? I think there are a great deal of assumptions built in to the statement.
Rail offers a mode of transit where a professional does the driving which allows the traveler the time to use as [s]he sees fit, unlike the personal automobile. This time should be factored in when comparing the traveler’s costs between traveling by rail and in a personal automobile. Whereas, the reduced personal space on a jet can preclude using travel time industriously.
You assume one traveler alone in a car, which is the case many times, but alot of work travel or pleasure travel longer distances usually involves more than one person and the flexibility of inner city transportation you would not have on a train. as far as jet travel, space is limited to maximize efficiency and improve profits. You could have similar limitations on trains given the increased costs of operating HRS compared with conventional rail. Also, if you look at Amtrak Acela costs, flying is still cheaper (if more time consuming) in the NY to DC corridor.
HSR (as opposed to conventional passenger rail in the U.S.) offers a grade-separated corridor for most, if not all, of the distance which enhances timeliness of travel and increases passenger safety. Jets, buses and automobiles all fall victim to choke points such as airport gate availability, traffic jams or severe weather delays. Rail travel has highly predictable traffic and can operate in all but the most severe weather.
If HSR truly isolates itself, what you say is mostly true, atleast from a weather delay issue. However, having ridden trains in Europe, I can tell you there are bottlenecks just like airports if trains have mechanical problems. I’ve spent many a time on a broken train or a train waiting for a platform to open up because the intended platform is occupied by a broken train. So similar problems can occur with trains that planes suffer from at destination, if not actual transit (like cars suffer from).
5.Special services such as mass evacuations for a natural disaster. For example, Houstonians could ride a train to escape a hurricane when the highways are jammed, or those in the Pacific Northwest could ride a train in case of volcanic ash plumes when jets are diverted or grounded.
The more modes of parallel transportation the better I believe, but I think evacuations from hurricanes are usually about moving what is most valuable along with you in case of home failure rather than just fleeing disaster. I know many examples of people that had their family all drive seperate cars to make sure they weren’t flooded upon their return when they could have taken up less road space by driving in one together. So there would have been no incentive to take a train.
Just my 0.02
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Weather Causes Massive Delays on Eurostar High Speed Rail
One misconception about rail service, especially high speed rail service, is that unlike airplanes, trains are somehow immune from delays caused by bad weather. President Obama himself reinforced this myth in his speech where he laid out his vision for high speed rail in America. In one sentence he lays waste to all the problems associated with air travel including delays due to inclement weather.
“No racing to an airport and across a terminal, no delays, no sitting on the tarmac, no lost luggage, no taking off your shoes.”
Link to “HSR Vision Speech”
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/04/16/a-vision-for-high-speed-rail/
President Obama’s high speed rail vision speech provides numerous opportunities for the critical blogger. But today I will simply rebut the “no delays” quote with a link to a British Broadcasting Company (BBC) report today out of London focusing on massive delays on the Eurostar HSR from London to Paris. Unfortunately you must first sit through a short commercial before hearing the truth about weather delays and high speed rail.
Link to BBC Story on massive Eurostar delays due to weather
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12041624
The footnotes below document what is said in this article.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/04/16/a-vision-for-high-speed-rail/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12041624
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I agree mother nature is capable of impacting every form of transit mankind has. I believe that a rail system is among the most resilient to inclement weather. My article read, “Rail travel has highly predictable traffic and can operate in all but the most severe weather.” I believe the long duration of extreme cold and heavy snow that London has endured this past fortnight can accurately be described as severe weather.
The snow at Heathrow closed that airport causing many people to change their travel plans to use rail. That passenger load shift has compounded the queues for the Eurostar from London to Paris. According to this article, Heathrow Airport was closed for four days and the Eurostar was only disrupted and delayed (but not closed) for two days.
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Dean,
London had approximately 6 inches of snow. Northern France had slightly more. The “severe weather” in London consisted of highs in the 30′s and winds of about 5-10 miles per hour. Obama’s “no delays” quote was in reference to a proposed high speed rail system not only going across the Tehachapi’s, but also across the Midwest, down the east coast, and across the entire country. His statement stretches the truth to the breaking point….as do most of his comments about HSR.
Mark