Passenger Rail in 15 years

What are Y'all's opinions on what the status of Passenger Rail will be like in 15 years?

High Speed Rail and that's it......

I think one of two things will happen. Either the LD lines will limp along like they are now or they'll be abolished completely. It'd be nice if the LD trains get lots of money and new development, but it's not likely at this point. What I do think will happen is that the high speed corridors, like the Midwest HSR corridors, will get more attention and will begin major development in the next 5-10 years. Chicago will continue to be a major hub for rail, possibly even growing as more regional trains come on line and become more attractive due to increased speed.

A few longhaul train segments might get chopped for good (like the NOL-ORL portion of the former transcontinental Sunset Limited) but a few will also probably be added (like Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Nevada) with the assistance of state funds and matching federal grants. High speed corridors might be a little further along but I would guess they will still be in the developing stages for the most part. Things change very slowly in the world of passenger rail, on the national scale anyway. Compare Amtrak of 1971 to Amtrak of today for proof... My vote went for Developing High Speed Rail Corridors, just for the record.

jccollins said:

but a few will also probably be added (like Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Nevada) with the assistance of state funds and matching federal grants.

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Aloha

Hope it ia avail next time i Go to LV from LA in October

GG-1 said:

Hope it ia avail next time i Go to LV from LA in October

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I wouldn't bet on it... the chance of it being available by then is almost nonexistant. I can only cross my fingers and HOPE it may be available by 2015... but I wouldn't be surprised it it was still in the developing stages then, too.

Well, I think that the best option would be for America to have a network, High Speed Rail Corridors connected by Higher Speed LD Trains, there obviously is demand for LD service, train's are frequently sold out, especially during holiday times.

The money Amtrak needs to continue serving hundreds of small communites, is chump change compared to what is used to destroy communites in other nations.

JP

We here in the USA can't even run trains at 79 mph well. Until we can run our trains well at 79 or 90 mph well, there is no sense of trying to build HSR.

The best we can hope for is a passenger rail analog of USRA (the one in the early 70's -- not WW I) that would produce a public-private partnership of 90 to 110 mph rail lines to start. Public owns RoW. Intercity passenger trains have priority, with 95% OTP target. Private interests compete to own franchise for manifest freight -- renewable, say every 10 years -- by stumping up capitol for maintenance, difference to be made up by federal/state governments.

Sam Damon said:

We here in the USA can't even run trains at 79 mph well. Until we can run our trains well at 79 or 90 mph well, there is no sense of trying to build HSR.

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Why should we worry about getting current tracks up to 79 or 90 when it will take new track to build true high speed rail service? I would rather not waste the money making the current routes faster and start to model after the French and build a whole new system.

I would not, however, like to take after the French and surrender every five minutes.

It's rather pointless to argue about top speed when we should be focusing upon average spped as well, and punctuality, and (very important) track capacity!. Many late arrivals and departures are caused by the utter and chronic plethora of traffic upon our nation's lines. While I think that getting freight to the railroads, and off of the nation's highways, is a good thing, we should also be ready to offer the fierght RR's some incentive $$$ in order to expand physical infrastructure capacity.

Bui;ding HSR corridors would allow completely bypassing the freight congestion and OTP problems. It would be new, completely separate Trackage systems, with NO freight on them. If there is any kind of chance for HSR, I think that's where the money should go. But I doubt that the money will ever be there. So the alternative is business-as-usual, duct-tape, bubblegum, and baling wire.

Amtrak will be getting better and better

Last chance to vote.