Talking Transportation: High Speed Rail

Time for a quick update on the good and not-so good news about high-speed rail around the world:

CHINA: The high-speed train between Beijing and Shanghai just passed the 100 million passenger ridership mark after less than 2 years of operations. The sleek trains depart every 15 minutes carrying 1,000+ passengers at 200+ mph, covering the 819 mile distance (comparable to NYC – Atlanta) in 4 hours.

China also recently opened a new 1,400 mile long high speed line from Beijing to Guangzhou (comparable to NYC to Key West FL). Travel time, 8 hours. That puts high speed rail just 100 miles from Hong Kong.

U.S.A.: America’s fastest train, Acela, while a tinker toy compared to true high-speed rail in China and Europe, is becoming a victim of its own success. Acela has captured over 50% of the NY to DC and NY to Boston market with hourly departures but an average speed of only 75 mph. Trains are sold out (with 3.4 million passengers a year) and, at least on paper, highly profitable. But when Amtrak looked at adding an extra car to each train to capitalize on this popularity, they concluded it would be too expensive.

But Amtrak has been experimenting with increasing Acela’s speed from 125 to 160 mph on a few stretches of track in NJ and RI. Some $450 million in work will be needed but the hope is the faster speeds could be achieved by 2017. Today Acela accounts for a quarter of all Amtrak revenues nationwide.

FRANCE: If it worked for the airlines, why not high speed rail? France’s government run railroad is about to launch a no-frills, discounted subsidiary branded “OuiGo”. Using rebuilt double-decker TGV equipment, the trains will be super cheap but with few amenities (think Southwest Airlines on rails). All ticketing will be online. Extra bags will cost you $8 in advance, $65 if you wait til the last minute. There are no café or bar cars on the trains. A seat near an electric outlet is extra. You have to arrive 30 min before departure, and OuiGo only uses suburban, not downtown, stations (appealing to the car-centric suburbanites near Paris). But for a little hassle, you can get to Marseille (on the Mediterranean) in three hours for as little as $13.

NETHERLANDS – BELGIUM: Not all high-speed rail in Europe is a smashing success. Witness “Frya”, the private rail service between Brussels and The Netherlands (in planning since 2004) that was to cut travel time by one-third using sleek new V250 trains (ironically named “The Albatross”) built in Italy. While lowest bidder Ansaldo Breda had a great track record building trams and commuter trains, when their V250 finally ran this Winter, ice build-up began ripping plates from beneath the trains. (See… Metro-North isn’t the only railroad with equipment problems in the Winter!). The V250 cars were declared unsafe and taken out of service while the lawyers go at it.

Editor’s Note: Jim Cameron has been a commuter out of Darien for 22 years. He is Chairman of the CT Metro-North / Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM. You can reach him at [email protected] or www.trainweb.org/ct . For a full collection of “Talking Transportation” columns, see www.talkingtransportation.blogspot.com