Can America Build Another Northeast Corridor?
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- čas přidán 12. 04. 2023
- The Northeast Corridor is the best passenger rail line in America, but are there other regions that can build a corridor to rival the best?
Hey yall, thank you so much for watching! This is my first video on the channel so feedback would be appreciated! This channel is a passion project of mine and I want to keep making videos on the channel in the future. Thanks again for watching!
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Fan Railer
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Zach 1227 Rail Videos
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Luke Starkenburg
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Wow this video blew up quick! Honestly thank you all so much for watching and liking the video, it means the world to me! Ill try to upload once every 2 weeks since these videos take a while to make. So stick around and wait for more content! Again thank you everyone for watching. 💜💛
Cant wait to see more vids this was so spot on 👑
the fact is we are doomed for high speed scam, thank you coming to my tedtalk.
You asked for feedback, so here goes: First, you know your stuff, and your examples are interesting, well-chosen, and in some instances different from those mentioned by CityNerd, whom I subscribe to. However, I think you are probably overselling high-speed rail as a solution for poverty, and also, if train service is frequent but expensive, problems will remain. Also, don't suddenly yell, and if you show a graphic like "Hyperloop Texas," briefly explain what's wrong with it instead of yelling something like "NO! NOT LIKE THAT!" I looked it up, found out that it was magnetic levitation, and though: "OK, that's cool."
Better upload fast 💨 😅
[Edit: Although I desire that the country could catch up to the rest of the world(and more) the best thing to do is to focus on stabilizing the economy.]
Fun fact the HSR network of China is mostly funded by banks.
Eliminating the need for a car once arriving in the cities is vital for the success of HSR. The Northeast Corridor has that.
Airports do that as well with rental cars. However, shared Car-sharing along corridors would be awesome.
By building more useful infrastructure around train stations like a link to local public transit in the form of bus routes light rail metros and street cars. As well as instead of dedicating big amounts of land to parking instead use it to have shops hotels and other useful things to pedestrians because nobody wants to walk through a huge concrete jungle without shade in the summer or cover from wind and rain it has to be a pleasant experience or else people will dread doing it.
@@TheNewGreenIsBlue getting a rental car is a big hassle rather than just driving five hours. (Although I guess the companies can streamline the process
And yet people who fly do it all the time.
FWIW, the Cascades corridor absolutely has that too; Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland all have good enough transit that a car is unnecessary, while the smaller cities certainly have less good but still useable transit.
In Europe one rule of thumb is that if a rail journey between two cities takes 4h or less, it can significantly reduce air travel between those cities.
500mi
That rule is probably a bit tighter in the US due to total door to door travel time being skewed. 2 hours by rail is worth it, but if the commutation time adds to much to it, rail fails and the local airport wins. European door to door times are much shorter than in the US.
@@starventure Not sure what you mean with door-to-door. Do you mean, your own door to the train station/train?
I can imagine what they mean is that rail usually drops you off in the city center, which is great in Europe where it reduces travel time because most destinations are there or relatively close to that, but US city centers are a mix of surface level parking and office sky scrapers and unless your destination is either of those you still have a significant distance to reach the sprawled suburbs where everything is.
@@darthmaul216 Distance is part of the math for sure, but the travel time is the real question. If there's a mountain range in between 2 cites it'll take longer (unless relevant officials give a shit and tunnel directly).
The Dallas-San Antonio-Houston "triangle" will be the next high-speed rail corridors in the USA. Major reason: construction cost will be relatively low because you don't have to deal with the *VERY* expensive tunneling and earthquake mitigation work, a huge problem for the California HSR corridor.
The South Shore Line is a holdover from the old interurban era of a century ago. It would be amazing to see it become part of a 21st-century rail transportation corridor.
Fun fact: Go transit owns 2% of the track that Via rail runs on, while Via owns 3%.
Mind you Via runs through the entire country
Love your username, It describes me a little too well. I want trains, density, *and* a early 90s Suzuki Carry
Wait whycdix i comment this bru
Then again via rail outside the corridor is just land cruises and essential rural services so they don’t care if they get delayed. It’s really disappointing that they have no expansion plans and that they wanna do stupid stuff like sell the corridor to a private company
they aren't looking at selling. what you are likely refering to is the High Frequency Train (HFT) plan as they looking at having a private partner build and operate it, with ownership by the government still. moot point as the HFT plan is on a entirely new corrider (old Peterborough/havelock spur mainly), that VIA does not even currently operate on@@CreatorPolar
Great video! As someone who grew up in Michigan and now lives in Toronto, it was great to see you mention the idea of HSR between Ontario and Michigan. I hope at the very minimum we can see a return of a train or 2 per day using the existing infrastructure to make life easier. Interestingly, CP has expressed support for Amtrak/Via Rail to use their tunnel between Detroit and Windsor. Additionally, Ford has been rebuilding the Michigan Central Station in Detroit and plans to rebuild several platforms which could support this service. I think its very possible a service could be up and running between Chicago and Toronto in the next 10 years.
There was a daily Amtrak train for many years between Chicago and Toronto via Port Huron. However, after 9/11, US Customs and Immigration wrecked the schedule for that route by creating endless delays in Port Huron instead of boarding the train in Ontario and carrying out their inspections while the train was underway. Amtrak had to eventually permanently discontinue that route.
Honestly the southeast rlly needs to be connected, like metro ATL has a population of 6+ million and only has one train a day at 11:30pm
I agree.
Good video! Always nice to see the algorithm promote a smaller channel. Another promising idea is to run from Philly through Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and end in Chicago. Connecting the rust belt to the Northeast Corridor and adding the requisite industrial expertise in rail maintenance and operation would probably do a great deal to revitalize the once industrial region!
So basically the Capitol Limited but faster and more frequent? I know that goes from DC, so perhaps it could be connected to the Keystone line in some way
@@aaronorel3254 That line is also very much worth speeding up, but a lot of the rail between Pittsburgh and DC is on freight lines that wind through the Appalachians. But Philadelphia to Harrisburg in Pennsylvania already has the electrified Keystone service at 110mph, so it seems to me the easiest way to get fast rail service through to the midwest. Bystander opinion here though so take it with a grain of salt lol
@@aaronorel3254Amtrak Pennsylvanian
So glad to see yet another urbanist channel arrive. Subscribed, and watching from LA.
You made some good points on expanding regional rail lines. However I feel we should concentrate on improving service over existing routes. Such as raising the speed over existing lines to approx. 125 MPH by adding additional track, removing grade crossings where possible, and improving curves where possible. This will cost much less than true high speed trains but still be competitive with driving a car on congested highways or the long wait times added for short haul flying. The operating and maintenance costs will also be lower thus making it possible to charge lower fares. So this should make these future more successful.
This is a fine strategy for lines that don't need (or can't support) a lot of work e.g. LOSSAN, but anywhere that needs a decent level of alignment work might as well go for 180+ MPH as much as feasible.
Existing corridors, where possible, should totally get the 90-125mph treatment, and improve frequency on the lines. It would cut travel times down by a lot and get a lot more ridership on existing lines with huge potential!
@@goldenstarmusic1689 for local services
We already have a "mini Northeast Corridor" route, the Capitol Corridor in Northern California. It runs from San Jose to Sacramento with links to San Francisco (via Oakland and Emeryville) and Amtrak thruway service to points south and west. It has 9 roundtrips a day, many use it for commuting and it had ridership of 674,039 in FY22. The Capitol Corridor gives a taste of what CA HSR could be.
All it needs to jump start HSR is electrification
Sorry but the 168 mile Capitol Corridor's pathetic amount of daily ridership is 2,000 or 100 per whole train the whole route. SMART is only 45 miles and it has 2,500 daily riders. Forget electricity. Upgrade the tracks to 110 mph (some 125 mph) and use trainsets like Brightline that are faster. Have atleast one express train.
The main obstacle for the HSR in the US is that there are too many lawyers fighting against it.
The Algo is goated for promoting your first video already. Earned yourself a new sub
Honestly this video just suddently blew up out of no where. Im so thankful that youtube is promoting me tho! Thanks for watching!
this ending got me emotional. as an angeleno who (rationally) fears the dangers of driving, i would love to see better trains on the west coast. it's taking too long, hopefully the growing movement can speed it up.
great video. really excited to see more in the future
Thanks for watching!
Idea: a new high speed line across southern Pennsylvania, directly connecting the two most populous regions of the country by the shortest and fastest route. Eastern branches would connect to Washington, Baltimore, and via Harrisburg to Philadelphia and New York. Western branches via Pittsburgh would connect to Cleveland and Columbus, fanning out through the Midwest to Detroit and Chicago in the north, Indianapolis and St Louis in the middle, and Cincinnati and Louisville in the south. The key to the whole thing is a straight Shot across southern Pennsylvania.
City nerd has a video on this, it’s an okay route but it’s not great
@@cxsey8587 City Nerd considers almost exclusively city pairs. It's a helpful metric in many circumstances, but it's almost useless when considering a trans-appalachian route. Every train between the midwest and northeast would be funnelled onto a single mainline, making it much more valuable than the sum of its city pairs.
Your enthusiasm is contagious!
love your passion for the topic!
A high priority corridor for the Midwest/Great Lakes is connecting the Twin Cities to Chicago. Connect from Chicago to Milwaukee, Madison, La Crosse, Rochester, Saint Paul, and Minneapolis. Rochester itself would grow even faster than it currently is, and the travel time could be reduced from 8 hours to 3 hours or even less.
Another area that I think would be perfect for a high speed corridor is the five cities just east of the Rocky Mountains. Cheyenne, Fort Collins, Denver, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo. All of these cities are nearly in a perfect straight line and like you said, if a corridor existed it would massively reduce the number of cars on the road for that beautiful part of our nation.
Yes, this right here! I haven’t been there in a number of years but I remember that I-25 is usually packed during rush hour and evenings between Denver and Fort Collins. Also many people from Colorado Springs and Cheyenne fly out of DIA. A high speed rail line would really benefit this area.
Dude my jaw dropped when I saw your subs, I've asspired to do content like this for a while and many times had the thought that the wave had past. Really awesome to see new creators in the Rail/Urban Design space, awesome video keep at it!
>2,200 trains per day.
Meanwhile Canada with 6 trains a day between their biggest cities
You misunderstood what he said. Those 2200 trains per day in the Northeast Corridor (NEC) include those run by Amtrak AS WELL AS local and regional public transit authorities combined.
If you included all the local transit trains -- GO Transit, AMT, OC Transpo, TTC, etc. -- there are far more than the "6 trains a day" that you claim. In fact, on some lines GO Transit alone operates 6 trains an hour.
1:05 this is one of the funniest pro-rail section I have seen so far, just amazing!
Another more niche possibility would be along Colorado's front range from north to south. Colorado has an Amtrak that goes east and west, but no trains that connect the most populated cities within Colorado to each other (and they are all basically in a straight line from north to south :D).
Yes, but that'll have to wait until either CAHSR or TexHSR.
Excellent video! Another good idea is to connect Boston to Toronto and Chicago by way of Albany and Buffalo with alternate routes to Chicago going through Detroit and Cleveland, revitalizing plenty of smaller cities along the way. A third alternate would go through Lansing and Grand Rapids.
Also Boston to Montreal via Lowell, Nashua, Manchester, Concord, and Burlington/Essex.
the next NEC is obviously sf to la. theres enough population and frequency to give the nec a run for its money. especially with the calmod and metrolink (or whatever the la region commuter rail is called) updates
edit: for florida to be anywhere successful, they must reduce at grade crossings to increase speeds
That would be a challenge to build below grade road underpasses in Florida with the high water table down there.
@@scrat4379 then build above grade?
@Lame Gaming If it works sure. I mention below grade road under passes as it would keep the track bed level to allow trains to maintain a constant speed.
amazing video and editing. i agreed with you on practically everything. excited to see your channel grow!
Great video! Another potential candidate for a corridor would be the Pacific Surfliner. I feel like it is being heavily underutilized with Amtrak only having 10 round trips from LA-SD, 3 round trips from LA-GO, and 2 round trips from LA-SLO. There’s also Metrolink and Coaster that serve parts of the Surfliner but also have super low frequencies. This corridor has endless potential to be a major corridor that could carry millions of people per year. On the bright side, upgrades are being done to the LA-SD section that includes double tracking most of the line and I believe some speed improvements? Now this is great and all, but I think they should do more. Coaster is definitely going to benefit from double tracking so I won’t talk about it. Metrolink badly needs to increase frequencies on all of their lines since they have some of the worst frequencies in the country. Here in Ventura County we only get 3 trains per day which is really bad. We need much more. Luckily it seems Metrolink does plan to do this for some lines, but not the Ventura County Line which baffles me. California HSR will also be running on the route for a small part of the Surfliner, so electrification of the entire Surfliner system is possible. This may be a controversial opinion, but I dislike the route the HSR takes from LA-SD. I’m not saying there shouldn’t be a line to SD via Riverside, but I don’t think HSR works for that kind of line. I think an intercity service would be much better. I think CAHSR should run on the entire line to SD. Not only would it reduce costs, but it would take a much more direct route than the proposed one, and it would give Amtrak some competition which would be great since tickets are pretty expensive at the moment. Although trains would be restricted to 110mph due to grade crossings, some parts of the route have no grade crossings allowing for higher speeds. I could see CAHSR going between LA and SD in 2hrs or less if done well. I think doing all these things would greatly benefit transportation in California and make for a great passenger corridor. Sorry I wrote a full on essay lol
You don’t think the Surfliner is already a corridor route similar to the NEC? As you said it has 10 trains round trip per day and has 2 different commuter rail lines operating on frequent schedules. Obviously the section north of LA is a little underserved, but it still is pretty decent, arguably decent enough that it still is a corridor route, though not like the NEC. As for the CAHSR I would imagine that they are prioritizing cost by going inland through Riverside and the Temecula area, and preventing against extremely large delays and cancellations due to the unlikely weather of California’s coast.
@@petethetraveler it definitely is a corridor. But it’s obviously nowhere on the same level as the NEC since lots of the line is still single tracked. Obviously the line south is being double tracked for the most part, but the NEC still sees significantly more trains and is primarily triple tracked and quadruple tracked in other areas. I guess my definition of a corridor was not appropriate in my comment. What I meant to say is to get it onto a similar level as the NEC in terms of business and whatnot. Sorry for the confusion
@@CrazyDash9 I definitely agree and thank you for the clarification. I totally agree that the Surfliner’s route is different from the NEC, most notably in geography.
Great vid!
Looking forward for more of your vids
You got a new fan!
This is probably one of the best transit advocacy videos I’ve seen yet. You mention all the needed things, and it’s such a strong video because of that. Thank you for such a great video!
immaculate video, hope to see more from you soon, you got a new subscriber
The obvious "Next NEC" already exists: The LOSSAN corridor shared by Amtrak California (CalTrans in disguise), Metrolink, and Coaster. We have half-hourly service through much of the day between Oceanside and San Diego, and it makes travel from my house in O-Side to S.D. easy. I use it a lot.
LA to San Bernardino
LA to San Diego
These two are a missed gold mine
Transport Planning student here... It is worth noting that transport is a derived demand, meaning transport, especially railways, are heavily tied to land use planning. So, while building these corridors might be a good idea (and trust me, it is a good idea), it will be of zero value unless you also sort out land use. No more of this single-family housing. Not in the quantities you have it, at least.
Also, transport planning transcends where the infrastructure and corridors go. It is about shaping the society you want to live in. Who do you want to get where? Where are you going to put barriers? Where are you going to put connections? The places transport gives you access to directly impact on your quality of life, so as I said, transport planning transcends planning the infrastructure, it is about planning the society we want to live in.
Great video dude
Amazing video!!
With amazing music, amazing edits and most of all amazing points
nice video!! more of this please
This video is so great! So funny yet actually proposing ideas. I accidentally refreshed CZcams but remember the title. I’d love to see you do a metro proposal where you build out an entire Rapid transit system for a city that doesn’t have one, or expand a rapid transit system like Seattle. Loved the video mate!
Minneapolis to Chicago would be a REALLY good line
This is a good video. The Cascade, Florida, Texas, corridors are actually pretty weak in terms of population served. The Canada/United States link you propose is probably a good idea. There are a lot of really good corridors in the triangle between Chicago, Washington DC and Boston. There's also something to be said for Raleigh to Atlanta, and you are right that California HSR is a good idea, in particular the line from Sacramento to Los Angeles.
You might want to check the population figures for those corridors. Besides which, population is not the right measure, its demand for travel and whether rail is competitive along the route with more convenient auto and faster flying. The Florida corridor is pretty perfect because of the demand for travel between its hubs. Miami is a long drive from Tampa or Orlando, but a short enough trip that a train beats a plane hands down. It is also great for tourists which is a huge multiplier for demand. Its really ideal.
@@danz1182 I used census data for populations of metropolitan statistical areas. I was surprised about just how many people there are in the Midwest (and to a lesser extent in the central valley of California) who live close enough together for rail travel to make sense. It's embarrassing that we don't have good rail in the Midwest.
Keep up the good work.
You sound really young but your video quality looks like you have been doing this for 5+ years easily
You'll be pleased to know that Amtrak was granted access to the Detroit-Windsor tunnel as part of the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger which was just completed.
A Northwest Corridor would be a dream come true. My father works in Olympia Washington while I and my mom live in British Columbia, Canada. The drive between BC and WA is a pain and the separation my parents experience isn't making things easy. If a high speed rail corridor existed in the Northwest it would connect us like never before. So much so that I and my mom could visit my father in the US without him having to drive up and back down. And since I cannot drive yet and my mom has to be in a wheelchair from time to time due to a recent knee surgery, high speed rail travel would be much more accessible for the both of us.
bro you've got a bright future ahead of you with this quality and sense of humour
I would like to mention that the Great Lakes Corridor very much should include the portions up through Wisconsin to Minnesota and beyond! The Twin Cities - Milwaukee - Chicago corridor was one of the most frequent historical train corridors in the US with trains that ran well upwards of 100-120+ MPH multiple times a day!
Nowadays, we are seeing efforts to restore frequency and speed in the TCMC corridor, as well as improving on existing lines like the Hiawatha to Milwaukee. Higher speed rail is getting planned to Duluth, restoring passenger service to the city in a better than ever package. Minnesota's state rail plan has corridors planned to improve Fargo-Moorhead frequencies, and even build an extension to Winnipeg in Canada! Hell, there's even a true high speed rail plan that is coming back to life; Rochester ZIP Rail would connect the Twin Cities to Rochester MN, beginning the start of proper electrified high speed rail that could extend to Chicago! It was banned from study by politicians in 2016, with efforts being made this year to overturn its study ban and political support for the project to come back!
Minnesotans have been fighting hard lately through the legislature to get funding for these passenger rail improvements is closer than ever this year and I highly recommend you take a look into the various passenger rail plans and funding that is coming through for Minnesota, and the Upper Midwest+Great Lakes overall. We're seeing the bones getting built of the next NEC in the Midwest.
HSR needs to expanded north of Milwaukee. A HSR connection from Marquette to Milwaukee would work
In my opinion, what is necessary is to initiate a star-shaped network of high-speed rail lines emanating from Chicago, using the French or Spanish systems based in Paris and Madrid as an example. 1. A line to Detroit and onward to Canada's major cities, and a branch to Cleveland, Pittsburgh and points east. 2. A major line to Atlanta via Indianapolis and Nashville. 3. Dallas via St Louis, connecting to other projects in Texas, and maybe a branch to Memphis and New Orleans. 4. Denver, via Davenport and Kansas City or Omaha 5. Minneapolis and Winnipeg. The point being, that all of these lines cover connections that could easily replace highway and and short-haul air travel...All the projects detailed here are corridors in the populous coastal regions of the US... certainly necessary and perhaps more profitable, but a unified high-speed rail system needs to have its hub at a centrally located population center. Atlanta could be another such hub.
Great job in explaining about corridors.
Yay!! You talked about my hometown Toronto 😄
I think another great one would be connecting several other cities in New York and Canada. There's ideas for an Empire corridor but electrifying all routes and optimizing them would be a massive upgrade. New Yorkers, myself included would love it to be realistic to take a weekend/business trip to Toronto or Montreal
How to eliminate long car trips
1: get bullet trains servicing every major metro area
2: get buses going to every nook and cranny of every metro area
3: Build a commuter rail to connect all to the main hub
Something to note about the Cascades corridor, Translink has mentioned the proposal [or at least possibility] for a high-speed rail connection into the states in their Transport 2050 plans. Fingers crossed that it comes within that timeframe!
ayye loving the metropark footage. metuchen in the buildin
Every time I watch a vid about the NE corridor, I think god I live along it
That last section was powerful sounded like a presidential speech you have my vote.
Maybe someone else said it but the reason why All Aboard Florida chose the FEC mainline was because they never joined Amwreck. The line is a corridor and was built originally for double track. I can see Brightline becoming interstate in the future. Or at least to Georgia.
Texas triangle, Vegas to Cali, SLC-Denver all need high speed passenger lines
I love the video! We need a change! We need more trains!!
Huh, i guess i found a new channel to subscribe to
On the money! Coming from a Michigan Resident, we desperately need a great train service in the midwest. The wolverine is nice but not run enough! Even Chicago to Detroit would be huge and throw Ann Arbor in there. This at the core leading to further expansion all the way to Toronto and beyond would be great. Not to mention the routes that could stem below throughout the rest of the midwest. Putting down these improved and expanded rail lines would induce so much demand, hopefully I will be able to witness more rail reliance.
Good video, would like to hear you talk about Brightline West in the future.
new to your blog, i/m a transport nut, subscriptions to many other bloggers, this is an excellent researched, intelligent presentation. This needs to whoever is running this country
Cascadia HSR would be absolutely amazing. Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland all have light rail or metro service to their Cascades stations already for further benefit.
Please, makes more videos about California High Speed Rail and other transit project in California!
I think not only building new corridors is important, but also upgrading existing lines and services. No need to connect several places by HSR when you can get around on a local / regional basis then. While HSR is a nice and for sure effective way to move from city to city, the masses of people would commuter on a more local basis and take offered train services if they're good, cheap, fast and frequent enough.
Take a look at the stats of Munich Central Station in Germany: each day there are "only" 258 long distance high speed trains , 597 regional and regional express trains, and 1,018 commuter trains. Even though there's a high ridership on high speed trains, the masses are transported by commuter trains, and then regional and regional express trains. With commuter trains running on up to a 2 minute schedule on the downtown commuter rail corridor during rush hour, they have a potential passenger capacity of close to 50,000 passengers per hour per direction.
A rail line always gives the opportunity to not only connect 2 cities, but also serve the entire area in between. Again an example from Germany. Two cities, approximately 1 hour apart. The main line has 2 tracks which are used by anything from freight trains to commuter, regional and international high speed trains.
The high speed train connects both city's central stations without stopping in between
The next lower category, but still high speed train stops only once, at the largest town half-way in between both cities
The regional express train stops 3 times in between, also at smaller towns/larger villages
The regional train stops at every single of the 20 stations along the track.
Thus, people living somewhere in the rural area in between both cities can benefit from the rail line and have a rail connection which takes them to high speed rail for long distance travels as well
...your video is very good and at the same time I congratulate you for the enthusiasm with which you speak in favor of this very important project to revitalize the railway system of your country, which I thought was more than convenient...it was left for many years The infrastructure has been forgotten, which is far behind compared to other latitudes...the federal government and private companies are seeing that it is possible...there are many politicians and people who do not want it to affect interests, but There are more enthusiasts of this than detractors... the train was and will continue to be the most efficient and economical means of transportation for society for many decades.
Wonderful video, a bit much American exceptionalism, but overall great points, great motivations, looking forward to future videos!
Nice book report
The fact that each and every one of these is not already online and operating at full capacity is an indictment of the state of infrastructure in this country.
I ❤ channels which talks about urbanism and transport related topics... Hope to see some quality content from you... Your 45th 😁 Subscriber from India 🇮🇳...
Well said
One of the biggest problem with getting HS rail going in North America is that you can't run HS trains on the existing freight rails. HS rails have to light, bouncy and have non-sharp turns that are banked. Plus, most passenger trains are electric powered and need that overhead catenary wire to power them. Freight rails on the other hand are hard, rigid and have sharp turns with no banking in them. A North American freight train is 5 time heavier the a European one. Plus, North American freight trains have higher priority over passenger trains, were as over in Europe, it's the opposite.
electrification would be one step; Even some freight rail lines in Europe did so more than a century ago because it was profitable.
Apart from that many lines across Europe are mixed use by both freight trains, local and long distance high speed trains
I'm so happy to see content like this. Do you do any advocacy or would you be interested in doing some? Your ideas make so much sense. I'd love to get on board.
Great video, I enjoyed the graphics and analysis. In the future, consider either skipping the fun buzzer noise or doing so less loudly (either at recording or in post-processing). Looking forward to future content!
Currently TRE connects downtown Dallas and Fort Worth. There are also regional rails from both cities to DFW, but that FT. Worth side's service (TexRail) is limited to just the one line and infrequent headways.
The biggest delay to California High Speed rail was settling numerous lawsuits brought by individuals in the San Joaquin Valley.
Great Video! What about a corridor between the major southeast cities of Atlanta to Raleigh? Exploding part of the country. Intrested to see your take on it!
Great video! 😁
6:16 yeah I really want to see this get built, but man does it seem like a bad investment for a private company to make (especially when the whole point is real estate)
I'm out here patiently waiting for the Banks Rail video about Brightline West, but I know I know, CAHSR is first
You've got spunk, and I'll stick around.
Good video, however I feel like your idea for Florida could continue along up to Jacksonville/Savannah, which then allows it to be connected to the northeast (assuming there's a way to get through VA/NC without going through marsh) which would have the amazing benefit of uniting the entire east coast from boston to miami
Georgia has a rather large advantage of having a lot of very rural land, a Atlanta>Jacksonville(with maybe 1 stop in Macon) could be built without having to avoid much, so it could be extremely straight and runn at top speed most of the way. If built right,
America can do anything if there's enough demand. However, these days, it's practically impossible to get the money and political backing to do much of anything, particularly when the rich have so much influence and most have little interest in passenger rail.
Opening scene: New Brunswick, NJ
Hello, Canadian here...
Quebec-Chicago? Hmmm...we're used to hearing "Windsor-Quebec Corridor" when discussing HSR.
I always thought a Montreal-NYC HSR line would come first but maybe the rights-of-way for long fast stretches are hard to come by.
An already-existing passenger corridor from the mouth of the St Lawrence to the shores of Lake Michigan might be a better bet.
Meanwhile...
VIA just got some 200km'h Siemens Venture trainsets, based on the successful OBB Viaggo in Austria.
And VIA is also getting some track upgrades on straight sections so the Ventures can hit their new max of....160km/h.
Also... super appreciate your takedown of Brightline. I heard they were a development operation: buy up land along a right-of-way, then build profitable condos and related services on top or surrounding stations. Now they're owned by a Japanese entity? Hope they have some ties to JR HSR technology when the death toll at level crossings is an obstacle to increased service, even for President Desantis.
I'm curious why you didn't consider a southeast HSR line: Indianapolis/Louisville/Nashville/Chattanooga/Atlanta Another railchannel proposed this route. The proposal also suggested stops in Bowling Green, Murfreesboro and a couple others to make up for a desperate lack of local commuter rail in and around Appalachia. Maybe it doesn't have the GDP of Cascadia or East Texas but it has the population.
OK, thanks for your video!
Texas Central railroad which is yet to break ground for its planned Houston to Dallas & eventually Fort Worth was left out. Dallas has the Dart rail that has the Orange rout that goes into DFW International airport, the Green line that goes to Carrollton and connects with the Denton County transit shuttle train and the Dart rail red & blue lines which don go into Union Station in Dallas where it does connect to & from Trinity Commuter rail that runs between Fort Worth & Dallas commuter trains and in both Dallas it connects to the Dart bus system and the T bus system in Fort Worth. Investment in high speed rail is a smart move. The anti passenger train people love chocked, clogged freeways & streets which are parking lots.
Right now cascadia is in the planning stage
I think u can extend the west Coast corridor to California if done right. Surprised u didn’t mention the south East connecting DC to south Florida and even Charlotte and Atlanta, or even Richmond to Raleigh to Atlanta.
Sometimes, I wonder if these urbanism channels even realize that VA, NC, and SC even exist. All I hear about is California, Texas, and the northeast.
VA and NC have bought the old train tracks south of Richmond. They are working on improving rail service in that region.
Lincoln to Omaha to Chicago should be the first new trial built
I Think the midwest would be good
When HSR opens between Bakersfield and Merced, NorCal to SoCal transportation will be revolutionized. CHSRA plans to increase the number of runs into SoCal from 12 to 18 a day. That's happening by 2030.
The Cascade Corridor would be great. Have a more local line in Oregon following 99W from the Portland stopping in Tigard, Newberg, McMinnville Monmouth and Corvallis. If it went down to Eugene (or just up to Salem) it could run with I-5 along the corridor route to connect with Salem, Woodburn, Wilsonville and Tualatin. Plenty of colleges in these towns too.
Surprised Twin Cities, Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago HSR wasn't mentioned. In fact, the trains were built for the Milwaukee-Madison HSR corridor, but they were sold this year because the project got canceled 10 years ago. If it were to be built, I guarantee there would be an actual Twins Cities-Chicago HSR.
Brightline will not invest in separation of modes at rail crossings. This has lead to many deaths. If forced to they will probably pull out of the service due to the cost.
In NYS Amtrak Empire Service provides: Twelve daily round trips (Albany-NYC) Three daily round trips (Niagara Falls-NYC)
The thing that kills the current CA SF HSR route is it still has to face engineering challenges to get out of the Central Valley south into LA as HSR. What is being discussed going forward now is there would be conventional speed rail connection at both ends of the HSR LA SF route that is already over the 500 mile range considered the maximum for HSR to compete well with jet airliners. At 500 mile length it makes sense to be pushing the HSR rail operational limit of 400 kph (248.548 mph) to get the time close to 2 hours with a few stops. Instead with the longer route, less than top performing HSR speeds and conventional speed rail possibly at both ends, times of over 3 1/2 hours or more between LA to SF seem likely. That makes the LA SF HSR rail no longer able to effectively compete with airline travel between these locations.
This HSR route does make living on the current planned HSF LA SF route good for passenger travel and nearly immediate station-to-station deliveries of under two hours to ether LA or SF. That appears to be the reason for the below critically performing Central Valley CA HSR route and implementation. It will likely not compete well with airline travel between LA and SF. Another HSR route and implementation could.
Without being involved with CA HSR tradeoffs its just a guess, also based on their being no institutional soul to the LA SF HSR, that once it became unlikely for it to comfortably stay below the three hour maximum trip time for HSR to compete with airliner traffic between LA and SF the HSR authority gave up on viable LA SF traffic and the flood of non HSR sections and less than top performing HSR rail sections were no longer worth fighting. From a passenger standpoint a coastal HSR route is much more interesting and would have been shorter than 500 miles. It would also allow the popular CA coast much greater access to major cities.
The epic benefits and potential example of the California HSR is perhaps directly correlated to the amount and vociferousness of FUD opposition to the project.
They should have had the Chinese build the California project. They've built thousands of miles of HSR in extremely difficult terrain in the time California has been futzing about with this relatively simple project. The new Chinese line currently under construction through the Himalayas to Tibet has 500 miles of tunnels over 10,000 ft. above sea level.
I think High speed rail should have been built decades ago in California between the Bay Area, Central Valley, and the SoCal Coast. Although an expensive tunnel under the San Gabriel mountains would be needed, rest of the route is flat, and capable of hitting 200 mph should be possible.
Bright-Line should build a triangle with a route as the crow flies from Miami/Tampa. It would actually be 2 triangle as a small one would split to go to Orlando!
I do have a question. Could we build tracks on highways?