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Well no one in the US will have a system like what we see in Asia anytime soon. If it happens in any of our lifetimes, that would be a remarkable development indeed.
The NE corridor is a good starting point - Washington to Boston. The southern extension down to Charlotte (from Washington), likewise - just treat that entire stretch as one corridor, which it basically is. It will likely be ready for upgrades before anyone else.
Assuming that Florida is dead in the water, the other candidates are CA, TX Triangle, Cascadia, and the hub running out of Chicago. They all have their merits, though I think more work and money would be involved in getting each of them off the ground. The Charlotte to Boston corridor basically has a sub-high-speed city-to-city corridor in place or under construction, the money has mostly been taken care of, the states where there is still construction (NC and VA) have done about a decade of studies and prep work, so the push to completion will cost far less than anywhere else, and gradual upgrades, doubling of track, etc can proceed from that foundation. This makes it the perfect 'demonstration' corridor for what can be done (and what can't) in some of the other planned corridors. As I've mentioned elsewhere, the NC sections that have opened have outperformed expectations, which is a signal that this can work in the sunbelt if a few conditions are met: the cities/states must do the promotion and make people aware, and several years of incremental work (upgrading and rebuilding stations, doubling track) needs to be done; cities also must look at what kind of development should happen in the rail corridors. Those conditions must be met, but if they are the chances of success are good. I've taken the NC sections, and ridership seems noticeably higher every time I do, and there's more city-to-city commuter traffic, not train geeks or city-data people, but people with jobs, business who see it as a viable alternative to driving that is here to stay.
Elsewhere, the costs of this have done nothing but climb. These basic plans have been discussed for more than a decade now, and had the work gotten started on all of them in the late 1990s, we wouldn't be having this discussion now. The Charlotte-Raleigh-Richmond-Washington-Baltimore-Philly-NYC-Boston line was supposed to have Atlanta (or perhaps Birmingham) as a southern endpoint; the governors in AL, GA and SC thought it was pie-in-the-sky and declined to involve themselves. Then, a decade down the road, they see the results in NC and VA, and they are starting to change their minds, but the cost has gone up astronomically. There's a lesson in that - the Birmingham-Atlanta-Athens-Greenville-to-Charlotte stretch of that line wouldn't be impossible to build at this point, but it would have been very doable around 2000. Now it will be a titanic effort, in the midst of a severe recession. As the saying goes: you snooze, you lose.
Happy to see this: Center City to Manhattan in under 30 minutes by 2023
AMTRAK SELECTS KPMG FOR HIGH-SPEED RAIL FINANCIAL PLANNING
Plan to identify funding sources, maximize private investment
Moderator cut: copyrighted materialAmtrak intends to build-out its NEC next generation high-speed rail plan using a stair-step approach that outlines a clear, structured and coordinated path to achieve 220 mph service on each of four operational segment openings. The initial operating segment is between Philadelphia and New York and could have passengers traveling at 220 mph as soon as 2023. Moderator cut: copyrighted material
as soon as 2023 is actually pretty far away. does it really need to take that long?
also, (maybe sacramento) san francisco to los angeles to san diego is a good route provided that a) the cities in between continue to grow and can actually be well-served by these high speed routes and b) the main cities keep on with their mass transit plans so that it doesn't seem silly to have left your car behind once you get to your destination.
Let's unveil the high-speed rail network in increments.
First:
California Triangle
San Diego, Anaheim, L.A.
Line A: from L.A to Bakersfield, Fresno, Stockton/Lodi and Sacramento
Line B: from L.A. to Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Jose and San Francisco
Additional line from Sacramento to San Francisco
Los Angeles to Las Vegas
San Diego (CA Triangle network terminus) to Phoenix
Texas Triangle
Dallas/Ft. Worth, Waco, Austin, San Antonio
D/FW, Houston, eventually to Galveston
San Antonio to Houston
Florida
Jacksonville, Cocoa Beach, Broward Co., Palm Beach Co., Miami
Cocoa Beach, Orlando, Tampa/St. Petersburg
Orlando to Broward Co. (to help connect the Tampa and Miami areas)
East Coast
Build first from D.C. through Baltimore, Philly, NYC, New Haven or Hartford, and Providence, terminating in Boston
Eventually expand south end of line through Richmond, Raleigh/Durham, Greensboro, Charlotte, Greenville/Spartanburg, and terminate in Atlanta.
Eventually expand north end of line to Portland, ME.
I think the Great Lakes and Chicago/StL routes will be implemented long before most of these on your 1st stage list, save for CA and the East Coast lines (at least the northern part of the East Coast).
California really should be ashamed of itself. The route is horrible. I don't understand they need so many stops. I say 2 TOPS for the metro area. I understand people don't want to travel far a train, but the amount of stops they wan't is just ridiculous. This is what I think: Sacramento - SF - SJ - LA - Riverside - SD. If you live in Oakland, go to SF. If you live in Bakersfield or Fresno, take a plane or drive. Only metros with more than or close to 1.5 million right now need this.
Also, instead of everybody being greedy, we should try to focus on one line at a time.
A route from New Orleans-Chicago would be ideal, roughly following I-55. Also west of the MS, Louisiana, Little Rock, Kansas City, etc.
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