Government Technology - August 2007 - (Page 32)

BY CHAD VANDER VEEN to Nowhere Supporters try to connect U.S. cities with highspeed railroads. But is government in the way? Hey talk about a-travellin.’ She’s the fastest train on the line. — JOHNNY CASH, ORANGE BLOSSOM SPECIAL Fast Track between cities like Rome, Florence, Naples and Turin at 186 mph. Plus, Italians are in the midst of constructing nearly 400 additional miles of high-speed railway. In Japan, high-speed trains known as Shinkansen have operated since 1964. The now expansive network of trains, tracks and stations crisscrosses the country and has served more than 6 billion passengers without any major safety issues. In the United States, high-speed rail systems have yet to leave the station. In fact, they have yet to leave the realm of wishful thinking. Despite high-speed rail’s proven global track record, for some reason government — be it federal, state or local — is either unable or unwilling to get onboard. Railroad Blues Many high-speed rail proposals exist, especially in large states with far-flung population centers, such as California, Texas and Florida, each of which announced plans for high-speed rail. The trouble is that these plans were created years ago, and not a single mile of track has been laid. In other regions of closely grouped cities, similar plans now gather dust. There are designs for high-speed trains to service Midwestern cities, such as Chicago, St. Louis and Minneapolis. Likewise, a train connecting Washington, D.C., New York City and Boston has long been in the works. So far, the best the United States has been able to come up with is the woeful Amtrak system. Slow, expensive and chronically late, the heavily subsidized railway has consistently failed to meet expectations. Amtrak’s problems, however, are hardly its own doing. The idea of Amtrak is a noble one — a nationwide passenger railway. Unfortunately Amtrak has been plagued by poor management, budget shortfalls and frequently late arrivals because most of the tracks it runs on are privately owned, which means freight takes priority over people. There are some bright spots within Amtrak — such as the Capitol Corridor that runs between Sacramento, and San Jose, Calif. There is also Acela, Amtrak’s quasi highspeed rail line in the Northeast, running from D.C. to Boston. The train is capable of speeds approaching 150 mph, but due to outdated infrastructure and arcane regional speed restrictions, the train averages around 75 mph. Both lines boast far more ridership than other Amtrak routes, but neither can offer any service approaching true high-speed rail. Florida seems like the perfect location to build a high-speed rail system. Long and AUG_07 aris and Lyon, Tokyo and Osaka, Madrid and Seville, Seoul and Busan — these cities have something in common. They’re connected by what many believe is the future of transportation — high-speed rail. High-speed rail systems whisk passengers hundreds of miles in mere hours by traveling at speeds as high as 357 mph. That record, recently established by the French TGV (train à grande vitesse or high-speed train), means the trains can move almost as fast as an airliner. And while most high-speed trains run slightly more slowly — around 200 mph — over the past several decades, they have proven their value, reliability and safety almost everywhere. Almost everywhere but here, that is. In China, engineers built the world’s first maglev — magnetic levitation — high-speed train. Operational since 2004, the train runs a P 19-mile route in Shanghai between Pudong Shanghai International Airport and Shanghai’s Lujiazui financial district, and covers the distance in seven minutes. In Germany, the InterCityExpress — known as ICE — rockets passengers across the country to major cities like Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. The Eurostar Italia ferries riders 32 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - August 2007

Contents Point of View The Big Picture The Last Mile Letter to the Editor GT Spectrum Up Close Vanishing Act Way Back Machine Fast Track to Nowhere Best of Both Worlds Texting 911? GIS to Go Neighborhood Watch Two Cents Products Signal: Noise Government Solutions

Government Technology - August 2007

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