I take Nick’s point about needing to get the operation up and running as quickly as possible. So yeah, it’s easier to get high speed rial in several segments (and would probably be the same for WA if we ever wanted Spokane-Seattle or Bellingham-Vancouver high speed rail) than just starting out DC-Boston. Get more of a buy in from places along the route. And get some people actually using it.
But again, 2040 doesn’t seem like it’s horribly far into the future.* Most big infrastructure projects are for the next generation.
* Although for some reason my brain insists to me despite my knowing better that 1995 sure feels a lot closer in time to now than 2015.
This is true high-speed rail. We, in the US, have a tendency to use the term high-speed rail in conjunction with Acela trains, which are really normal-speed passenger rail.
We’d be better off spending our money on upgrading our current freight rail system than building very, very expensive, stand alone, high-speed rail.
Upgrading our current freight rail system, if done right, could limit the impact of the expanding Panama cannel
Joe Stegner at 2:There are two ports that are already taking business from US West Coast ports prior to the canal being expanded. Prince Rupert B.C. and Lazero Cardenas, both having rail connections to the US Midwest. Prince Rupert, by way of the Canadian National Railway, bypasses a lot of congestion, and Lazero Cardenas in Mexico, is served by Kansas City SOuthern de Mexico, the Mexican subsidiary of Kansas City Southern.
Los Angeles already has some improving freight capability, with the Alameda Corridor, and BNSF has improved the Southwest Transcon route. The last major stand of single-track fell last year, as the double-tracking operation in Abo Canyon, New Mexico, was a major undertaking. The competition, Union Pacific’s Sunset and Golden State Routes, are still largely single-tracked, UP is probably going to have to work on that now, although they did try to shake Amtrak down for a $1 Billion to do siding upgrades and double track that would allow the Sunset Limited, possibly the worst performer of Amtrak, and has been on tri-weekly schedule between New Orleans since 1969-70, just before Nixon signed the legislation that created Amtrak.
Michael @1, we are working on it here, with Amtrak Cascades, although a shortcut in Tacoma to bypass freight-congested Point Defiance is underway. The first phase for Sounder, opens late September, early October, that will have SOUNDER serving South Tacoma and Lakewood. Eventually, track upgrades to Nisqually Junction will make it possible for Amtrak Cascades to use it, saving anywhere from 5-11 minutes from what I have heard over the years.
The last time a regularly scheduled passenger used the line through Lakewood, was a long time. I saw in a photo in the book Railroad Shutterbug of a couple people watching said train pass through the junction around Pacific Ave in Tacoma(on the old connection between the Point Defiance Line, and the Lakeview Sub), the train was being pulled by a Steam Locomotive(it was in the mid-1950s, just before Northern Pacific replaced their last steamers).
@4
Folks are doing awesome work on trains around here.
Michael@5
That is true. Just like with SOUNDER-Lakewood over a decade of planning, but construction is moving swiftly. Back in November, I thought, no way they could have construction complete on the Freighthouse Square to South Tacoma segment by the end of this year. Then the last time I was in Tacoma(about 2 months ago), progress had been big.