Train-ing

Commemorating the anniversary of the completion of the first transcontinental railroad at Promontory Summit, Utah in 1869, Amtrak has set Saturday, May 10th as National Rail Day.

Many American planners -- and citizens who have traveled to Europe or Japan and enjoyed high-speed rail service -- realize that our national system is far behind where it should be. With gas prices projected to keep on climbing, and concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, it's time we turned our attention to catching up with countries like France, Germany, Spain, and Japan.

While there has been progress in many U.S. cities on light rail and trolley systems -- something highlighted in the Planetizen update in our Winter issue -- the same can't be said of our inter-city rail system. Even in our dense Northeast Corridor, our high-speed rail is nearly a generation behind that in use in Europe.

For just a quick look at high-speed rail in Europe, see "Touring Europe at 200 Miles an Hour: Travel by High-Speed Rail Catches On as an Alternative to the Hassles of Flying," in the Mar. 12, 2008 Wall Street Journal:

"Consumers are flocking to the comfortable, speedy trains -- while growth is slowing in parts of the airline industry. Eurostar reported a 15% rise in ticket sales for 2007, with much of the increase occurring after the London enhancements. Meanwhile, airport passenger-traffic growth has fallen to 2% in Britain for the past two years ..."

photo above is of the new TGV-Est line, connecting Paris and Strasbourg at operating speeds in excess of 200 mph. Interestingly, France views its high-speed rail system as key to strengthening regional economic development by facilitating access to medium size cities throughout the country. See, e.g., Strasbourg: a "Magistrale" city. The video below shows tests of the new TGV breaking the world speed record of 574 kph (344 mph).

It didn't used to be this way. America for nearly a century was the world-wide leader in passenger rail, with trains like the 20th Century Limited connecting cities between New York and Chicago.

But countries like Spain now far surpass us -- witness their expanding high-speed AVE network, which connects Barcelona and Madrid -- 314 "air miles" apart -- in 2 hours and 40 minutes.

By comparison Chicago and St. Louis are just 260 miles apart. Amtrak connects the two cities, but it takes 5 hours and 20 minutes.

At high speeds now common in much of Western Europe, rail often replaces air as the fastest city-to-city travel option. Only in a very few places in the U.S. can the same be said.

For more on AVE, see Can Spain's AVE Train Kill the Airplane, by Jorge Chapa (Mar. 4, 2008). The video below is commercial footage of the AVE and its Madrid-Barcelona route.

Too many politicians scapegoat Amtrak and call investment in it a waste of money. That's a short-sighted view, especially when it comes to passenger rail's potential in connecting cities in many short and medium distance corridors where population densities are relatively high (parts of the East & West Coasts, Midwest, and South).

Many don't realize that rail travel is significantly more energy efficient per passenger mile than other modes of transport. According to U.S. Department of Energy data, Amtrak is 17 percent more efficient than domestic airline travel and 21 percent more efficient than auto travel on a per-passenger-mile basis.

Here's part of the table from the U.S. Dept. of Energy's 2006 Transportation Data Book (Chapter 2). It may be more readable if you click on the image to open it up at a larger size. Look, in particular, at the column on towards the right "btu per passenger mile":

Amtrak is also a charter member of the Chicago Climate Exchange, the world’s first legally-binding integrated greenhouse gas reduction and trading system. It has committed to cutting diesel emissions by 6 percent by 2010. According to Amtrak, this represents the largest percentage of reduction committed to in the United States on a voluntary basis and is the first commitment made by a transportation company.

There are several regional high-speed rail initiatives in the works, perhaps the most promising being planned for California. It would result in 220 mph rail service, linking Sacramento and San Francisco, with Fresno, Bakersfield, Los Angeles and San Diego. But a massive investment is required to implement this ambitious plan, which would take at least 15 years to carry out. For more on California's plans, see the California High-Speed Rail Authority web site, and also take a look at the California High-Speed Rail blog (including a recent post, "HSR is Vital for a Green California").

And take a look at this video posted by the California High-Speed Rail Authority which provides an overview of the project:

For reports on other regional plans, see the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission's site, and the Midwest High-Speed Rail blog.

As gas prices continue to climb, Americans may well want to know where are rail alternatives to cars and planes. But it will take a fundamental commitment and change in priorities for how we invest our federal and state transportation dollars.

National Rail Day ... not a bad day for reflecting on a better direction for our country when its comes to transportation.