My Curious Life

Reading about the healthy and growing European rail system the other day made me get a bit misty-eyed and sentimental. I have many fond memories of the convenience of rail travel throughout Europe from my days living in Vienna, Austria. Since then, the Channel Tunnel has opened Paris to London travel, even bringing with it a renaissance for some previously deteriorating train stations.

Jump over the pond to the U.S. and you have essentially one rail option, Amtrak: slow routes that only cover a few major areas of the U.S., worn out rails and trains, and customer service that’s none-too-stellar. Yeah, that’s enticing. (Don’t even get me started about local mass transit … that’s something else lacking in the U.S., especially the West Coast.)

In fact, many of the Amtrak routes are at least partially served by bus and not truly rail at all. Amtrak’s only true recent success has been in the Northeast, where population density has made it more financially advantageous to make frequent rail trips, even quasi-high-speed rail reaching speeds in some sections up to 134mph (over about 18 miles of track).

Even given Amtrak’s rocky history and their current financial stats, I think that a few truly high-speed regional rail lines built with the financial cooperation of the cities, counties and states they would serve might turn around the aging giant and bring to the U.S. some of the class and convenience of the European railroad. Take into account soaring gas prices, frustrations with current airline service, and extensive security measures and the number of reasons to revisit rail as an option start making sense.

Even U.S. juggernaut GE could be called in to develop a new, more eco-friendly high speed locomotive based upon their Evolution^TM series engines. Or we could simply adopt Bombardier’sthe ICE train, as Germany and the Netherlands have, built by Siemens AG and Bombardier. Or settle for the not-quite-as-fast JetTrain.

Alstom, maker of Europe’s successful TGV train, already has a very high speed train that has set a speed record of 574.8 kph ( ~ 357 mph ). Getting reliable high-speed service up around 180 mph should be feasible and attainable.

Amtrak takes over 40 hours to travel from Vancouver, BC to San Francisco, the first 4 hours on a bus. What would happen to travel along the U.S. West Coast if high speed rail served the region? You could ride in an incredibly comfortable rail car for the same (or less) time and money as taking a flight. Would security have to be as tight? Would we be able to do high-speed cargo as well? Perhaps maximize the necessary infrastructure investments by taking fresh local goods and services from one region to another faster and more efficiently than by truck or conventional rail?

Admittedly, nationwide high speed rail might be a fantasy at this point, but isn’t a high-speed regional system possible?

It’s approximately 1400 miles from Vancouver, BC to San Diego, CA. The trip by a conventional airline flight averages about 5.5 hours — 1 hour in flight from Vancouver, BC to Seattle, WA, then a 1.5 hour layover and another 3 hour flight to San Diego, CA. This doesn’t include the additional time necessary to check-in at the airport and go through security or pick up your bags in luggage claim.

What if we had a high-speed rail service that traveled the West Coast and stopped in these cities:

• Vancouver, BC
• Seattle
• Olympia
• Portland
• Salem
• Eugene
• Sacramento
• San Jose
• Los Angeles
• San Diego

A high-speed rail line operating at about 200 mph and making 20 minute layovers in each metro area, could make the entire trip from Vancouver, BC to San Diego, CA in just over 10 hours (caveat: heavily averaged math). That’s about 1/4 of the time it takes now. That may still seem like a long time, but rail can offer things that air travel can’t, like dining cars, sleeper cars and no limitations on electronic devices (bring those laptops and iPhones). I know I’d gladly spend the night on a train in comfort on my way to California rather than waste an extra day at the airport on either end of my trips. Or gain the ability to actually get things done during the course of my trip, as well as eat a decent meal.

For now, I’ll just have to wait and dream. Amtrak’s FY2008 request makes it pretty clear that they are still trying to revitalize their fleet and bring the overall system into “a state of good repair” at this point, and they make no mention of the West Coast at all. Maybe, just maybe, their success in the Northeast can translate into something good for us in the West. And if you start looking for a place to start new experimental service, Mr. Kummant, we’d be happy to oblige.