Michael Delaney

Stimulus Puts Railroads on Fast Track to the Future

I do not think we are going to see hydrogen powered trains in the near future, but high-speed rail in areas that are already electrified (the northeast corridor) are possible in one to two years. High speed rails in Europe have absolutely decimated short-hop airline flights. Studies have shown that travelers prefer planes to trains when train travel exceeds about four hours. Thus, high speed trains in Europe (at 150 mph) will replace air flight out to about a 600 mile radius, and with a carbon footprint of 10% that of an airliner. High speed rail in the United States will run at a more modest 110 mph so we can expect high utilization on trips of 450 miles or less.

A high speed rail line from New York to Los Angeles sounds intriguing, but would probably have low ridership because most people would want to fly when crossing a continent.