Tag Archives: rail

Is the US on the right track with high-speed rail technology?

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Artist's impression of the Brightline West high-speed rail line

brightline west

Today, construction begins on America's first full-scale high-speed rail line, connecting the suburbs of Los Angeles to the bright city of Las Vegas, Nevada. The project could not only allow people in the United States to finally experience high-speed passenger trains of European and Asian standards, but also provide a commercial model for building high-speed rail elsewhere in the United States. be.

A groundbreaking ceremony in Las Vegas today, attended by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, along with officials from Nevada and California, marked the official start of construction on the Brightline West project. Brightline West, which aims to be completed within four years in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, will bypass lines of stranded cars and cross the median of Interstate 15 at speeds of 320 km/h. It is expected to fly passengers at speed. In the weekend traffic jam.

The $12 billion project is a bold gamble for Brightline and its owner, Fortress Investment Group, even considering a $3 billion federal grant announced by President Joe Biden in December 2023. It may seem like. But there are several reasons why Brightline West will be more successful than the rest of the United States. High-speed rail projects are delayed.

According to sources, Brightline is focused on connecting major markets that are approximately 400 to 550 kilometers apart. report By infrastructure consultancy AECOM. This represents a sweet spot where high-speed rail is highly competitive with driving and flying. His 350-kilometre trip on Brightline West from Las Vegas to the Los Angeles suburbs is expected to take him just over two hours, making it an attractive alternative to his four-hour drive, which 50 million people travel between cities each year. This is a great alternative.

“High-speed rail has proven to be a very efficient way to move large numbers of passengers within median distances,” he says. Jiao Junfeng At the University of Texas at Austin. “There are many success stories out there in European countries and Asian countries, and there are markets where high-speed rail operations have proven profitable.”

Another factor in Brightline's favor is that it leased access from Nevada and California to build Brightline West through the existing Interstate 15 corridor. This avoids the costs and delays typically associated with obtaining rights of way and acquiring land.

Reducing the risk of delays can also reduce overall project costs in the long term. California's own high-speed rail project was first approved by voters in 2008 to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles; project cost Soared from $33 billion to $128 billion. Other high-speed rail projects are currently being considered in Texas and the Pacific Northwest.

“When you're talking about preparing for construction or progressing construction, time is not on your side. [because of] say “inflation” Jean Whittington at the University of Washington in Seattle. “These projects are so large that it's like implementing multiple megaprojects that all depend on each other to complete successfully.”

One lesson U.S. National Railroad officials can learn from Brightline is to avoid lengthy planning stages and “focus on the costs of delays and indecision,” he said. Russell Jackson, Global Transportation Director at AECOM. He also suggested that while Brightline's approach focuses only on the most profitable routes, government funding could fill in the gaps in other cases.

“Public funds can be used for projects that are still needed to connect pairs of cities that are a little too close to travel by plane and too far to drive,” Jackson said.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

High-speed rail benefits from Hyperloop’s setbacks

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In 2013, Elon Musk published the following paper: white paper It teased the idea of ​​traveling at high speed from Los Angeles to San Francisco in just 35 minutes through a vacuum-sealed tube (a system he called Hyperloop). The idea was “born out of his hatred of California’s proposed high-speed rail system.” according to to his biographer Ashley Vance.

A decade later, Hyperloop One, the most high-profile startup to try to follow in Musk’s footsteps, close the door. News of its demise came less than two weeks after the Biden administration took office. announced Provides $6 billion in funding for high-speed rail projects across California.

This is a huge victory for public transit advocates, many of whom have struggled for decades to improve not just high-speed rail, but rail service overall. (Biden’s announcement includes Numerous other railway projects across the country.) But it’s by no means a complete victory.

First, many cities and states were fooled by the hyperloop’s siren song and then left adrift. In 2018, I reported on a story about the collapse of Arrivo (another hyperloop startup founded by one of Hyperloop One’s co-founders), and when I called the Colorado Department of Transportation to ask about the company’s bankruptcy, I finally got a response over the phone. I still vividly remember what I noticed. they didn’t know it happened.

Colorado wasn’t alone.Hyperloop One once promised to be built in West Virginia $500 million testing and certification facility state. They also built a test track near Las Vegas, where they briefly took some people through tubes. Clearly, that was enough for then-CEO Jay Walder. Claim It was “the first new means of mass transportation in over 100 years.”

Other hyperloop projects and companies remain, but most are located outside the United States. Thankfully, the country was already regaining momentum in investing in its rail system with a focus on faster trains.

The most high-profile initiative is Brightline, a company that recently expanded its existing service in Florida. all the way to orlandopassengers can travel there from as far away as Miami.

Brightline is also building what it calls “the nation’s first true high-speed rail network” between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The project is supported by $3 billion in funding recently announced by the Biden administration and is expected to break ground in early 2024.

Building high-speed rail is about more than just money.There is deep-rooted problems Years of deregulation are getting in the way. With a project of this size, it’s difficult to stay on time and on budget.of other A big recipient of the newly announced federal funding (another $3 billion) is the high-speed rail project slated to run down the spine of California, a source of Mr. Musk’s ire.

Could the return of high-speed rail risk a rematch with the world’s richest man? Perhaps rail fans can take solace in seeing how distracted Musk has become since his 2013 white paper.

Moreover, aside from a few engineering competitions held by SpaceX, Musk has only enjoyed his Hyperloop project on a superficial level.

Musk once tweeted that he had received “verbal government approval.” build “New York-Phil-Balt-DC Underground Hyperloop” It was never built. In April 2022 he claimed His tunneling effort, The Boring Company, will “attempt to build a practical hyperloop.”The next day, the company tweeted “Full-scale testing of Hyperloop will begin later this year.” That also never happened.

Mr. Musk has spent the past decade with little involvement in Hyperloop, essentially outsourcing his efforts to abolish high-speed rail. The death of Hyperloop One casts a cloud over that premise, and the billionaire looks increasingly forced to make a decision: Will he be willing enough to find the time to finish the job himself?

Source: techcrunch.com