(Source: Fastlane – Sec. Ray LaHood’s Blog)

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced $2 billion in high-speed rail awards providing an unprecedented investment to speed up trains in the Northeast Corridor, expand service in the Midwest and provide new, state-of-the-art locomotives and rail cars as part of the Administration’s plan to transform travel in America. Shortly after making this announcement, he spoke to the financial media house, CNBC, about how these investments in high-speed rail investments are distributed and how they will benefits the various states that received this huge bonanza.

Twenty-four states, the District of Columbia and Amtrak submitted nearly 100 applications, competing to be part of an historic investment that will create tens of thousands of jobs, improve mobility and stimulate American manufacturing.  Here is an excerpt from the USDOT presser outlining the details of this disbursement:

The Department’s Federal Railroad Administration selected 15 states and Amtrak to receive $2.02 billion for 22 high-speed intercity passenger rail projects as part of a nationwide network that will connect 80 percent of Americans to high-speed rail in 25 years. The dedicated rail dollars will:

• Make an unprecedented investment in the Northeast Corridor (NEC), with $795 million to upgrade some of the most heavily-used sections of the corridor. The investments will increase speeds from 135 to 160 miles per hour on critical segments, improve on-time performance and add more seats for passengers.
• Provide $404.1 million to expand high-speed rail service in the Midwest. Newly constructed segments of 110-mph track between Detroit and Chicago will save passengers 30 minutes in travel time and create nearly 1,000 new jobs in the construction phase. Upgrades to the Chicago to St. Louis corridor will shave time off the trip, enhance safety and improve ridership.
• Boost U.S. manufacturing through a $336.2 million investment in state-of-the-art locomotives and rail cars for California and the Midwest. “Next Generation” rail equipment will deliver safe, reliable and high-tech American-built vehicles for passenger travel.
• Continue laying the groundwork for the nation’s first 220-mph high-speed rail system in California through a $300 million investment, extending the current 110 mile segment an additional 20 miles to advance completion of the Central Valley project, the backbone of the Los Angeles to San Francisco corridor.

Nearly 100 percent of the $2.02 billion announced today will go directly to construction of rail projects, bringing expanded and improved high-speed intercity passenger rail service to cities in all parts of the country. Thirty-two states across the U.S. and the District of Columbia are currently laying the foundation for high-speed rail corridors to link Americans with faster and more energy-efficient travel options.

Click here to read more.

(Source: YouTube via Wonkette)

Washington DC’s political columnist Wonkette says this video below earned cheers during this year’s Conservative Political Action Congress (CPAC).  Hey, wait a second.. aren’t the conservatives dead against all things high speed rail? At least that what one would think reading this rebuttal from House T & I Committee leadership, (chaired by FL Republican  Rep. John Mica), slamming President Obama’s proposal to spend some big money on High Speed Rail projects to prop up the economy and job market.  Watching this makes me wonder if the Republican leadership in the  has seen it already? Did he know that this idea was received warmly by fellow Republicans?

Related articles

• Republicans Begin Fight Against High-Speed Rail in US (inhabitat.com)
• Obama Administration Investing $53 Billion in High Speed Rail (ecogeek.org)
• Obama to call for $53B for high-speed rail (sfgate.com)
• Biden: Hey, let’s spend $53 billion on high-speed rail (hotair.com)
• Winning The Future With High Speed Rail (redstate.com)

(Source: AFP via Yahoo)

A Chinese passenger train hit a record speed of 302 miles per hour (486 kilometers per hour) Friday during a test run of a yet-to-be opened link between Beijing and Shanghai, state media said.

The Xinhua News Agency said it was the fastest speed recorded by an unmodified conventional commercial train. Other types of trains in other countries have traveled faster.

A specially modified French TGV train reached 357.2 mph (574.8 kph) during a 2007 test, while a Japanese magnetically levitated train sped to 361 mph (581 kph) in 2003.

State television footage showed the sleek white train whipping past green farm fields in eastern China. It reached the top speed on a segment of the 824-mile (1,318-kilometer) -long line between Zaozhuang city in Shandong province and Bengbu city in Anhui province, Xinhua said.

Click here to read the entire article.

Note: I can’t help myself marvel at how different the conditions are for High Speed Rail deployment in two different ends of the globe – China vs. USA.  Here is a story that outlines how a  political game played in Washington is wreaking havoc to any chances of deploying a successful high-speed rail network.  While American politicians are embroiled in petty politics, Beijing’s communist rulers have already bought into he value of investing in such a network, especially with an exploding demand for transportation in the decades ahead as the nation’s wealth increases, and are determined to show their commitment to a successful, wide-spread deployment.  It makes one thing clear  – we in the West are not really lacking in ideas and ambitions; our pitfalls (and therefore the poor performance in a competitive economy) are in our inability to come together and look at common good beyond party lines. Somehow we managed to convince, not just the nation but the entire world, a $744+Billions war  (an utterly unprovoked and unnecessary war whose costs are still climbing at a giddying pace) is worth bleeding for in terms of national security.  But somehow we are not willing to look past our differences to come together and execute a project that is only going to make us better. Why are our politicians adamant to not realize that such modern infrastructure projects are good for our nation’s economic security in the long run? Oh well, its gotta be the Democracy that we are trying to export as a successful model.

Related articles

• China passenger train hits 300 mph, breaks record (sfgate.com)
• China Unveils World’s Fastest High Speed Train (huffingtonpost.com)
• China Passenger Train Breaks World Record (abcnews.go.com)
• China claims new passenger train speed record (ctv.ca)
• Chinese passenger train sets new world speed record after reaching 302mph (dailymail.co.uk)
• imabonehead: China passenger train hits 300 mph, breaks record – Yahoo! News (news.yahoo.com)
• Chinese train sets speed record, Xinhua reports (cnn.com)
• Chinese passenger train breaks world speed record (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Chinese passenger train breaks world speed record (foxnews.com)
• Chinese passenger train reaches 302mph, claims speed record for unmodified trains (engadget.com)

(Sources: USDOT Sec. Ray LaHood’s Fast Lane Blog; USDOT; NY Times; Wired, Tree Hugger; The Transport Politic)

A day after delivering the State of the Union address, President Obama took his economic message on the road in the first of a series of trips outside Washington. He began his full-scale pivot to the economy by focusing on high-speed rail projects, a tangible thing that many voters can see in their own neighborhoods or states. Joined by Vice President Biden in Tampa, Florida, he announced the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act High-Speed and Inter-city Passenger Rail grants. Mr. Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. both traveled to Florida to announce the projects. The president and vice president rarely travel together, but did so in this case because Mr. Biden has overseen the economic stimulus plan. He introduced Mr. Obama to the crowd at an event that resembled a campaign rally.

The investments, scattered across the country, include startup money for high-speed rail projects in California and Florida. For months, states have been engaged in a bidding war over the money, which comes from the economicstimulus plan approved a year ago.

Image Courtesy:Sec. Ray Lahood's Fastlane blog

Our favorite, Yonah Freemark @ The Transport Politic summarized this seed funding for HSR as follow: After months of speculation about which states will get funding from the Federal Railroad Administration to begin construction on new high-speed corridors, the news is in. As has been expected, California, Florida, and Illinois are the big winners, with more than one billion in spending proposed for each. But other states with less visible projects, including Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Washington will also get huge grants and begin offering relatively fast trains on their respective corridors within five years. The distribution of dollars is well thought-out and reasonable: it provides money to regions across the nation and prioritizes states that have made a commitment of their own to a fast train program.

The bulk of today’s awards go to new, large-scale high-speed rail programs–projects such as Florida, with $1.25 billion to develop a high-speed rail corridor between Tampa and Orlando with trains running up to 168 miles per hour–and California, with $2.25 billion to connect Los Angeles to San Francisco and points in between with trains running up to 220 miles per hour.

In total, 31 states and the District of Columbia will receive awards. In addition to 13 corridor investments, we are also awarding several grants for improvement projects and planning. These efforts on existing routes and emerging corridors will lay the groundwork for future high-speed and intercity rail development.

And here are the stats of the projections for each line via Tree Hugger (via Wired):

California
First Phase – San Francisco to Los Angeless
Ultimate Goal – Sacramento to San Dieago
Estimated Completion Date – 2025
Top Speed – 220 mph
Final Tab – $45B

Florida
First Phase – Tampa to Orlando
Ultimate Goal – Orlando to Miami
Estimated Completion Date – 2017
Top Speed- 180 mph
Final Tab – $11.5+B

Midwest
First Phase – Chicago to Madison, Detroit, and St. Louis.
Ultimate Goal – Hub-and-spoke network: 20 major cities using 3,000 miles of existing railway.
Estimated Completion Date – 2025
Top Speed – 110 mph
Final Tab – N/A

Texas
Ultimate Goal – “T-Bone” connecting Dallas/ Ft. Worth, San Antonio, and Houston
Estimated Completion Date – 2020
Top Speed – 220 mph
Final Tab – $12-22B

Northeast
Ultimate Goal – Speed-boosting upgrades to existing lines to get Washington-to-Boston travel time down to five hours, 45 minutes.
Estimated Completion Date – 2023
Top Speed – 150 mph
Final Tab – $12B

Other lines will grace Washington, Oregon, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.

For further details on the major corridor projects, click here (via USDOT Press Release):

• Florida
• California
• Chicago-St. Louis-Kansas City
• Madison – Milwaukee – Chicago
• Charlotte – Raleigh – Richmond – Washington, D.C.
• Eugene-Portland-Seattle
• Detroit-Chicago
• Ohio
• Northeast

Please visit here for a complete in-depth analysis of this distribution and for an awesome table that captures salient features (distance, funding amounts, etc). Thanks to Yonah Freemark for his efforts to keep us informed.

(Source: Fortune Magazine via CNN Money)

Images via Apture

When lunch break comes at the construction site between Shanghai and Suzhou in eastern China, Xi Tong-li and his fellow laborers bolt for some nearby trees and the merciful slivers of shade they provide.

Image Courtesy:Fortune

It’s 95 degrees and humid — a typically oppressive summer day in southeastern China — but it’s not just mad dogs and Englishmen who go out in the midday sun.

Xi is among a vast army of workers in China — according to Beijing’s Railroad Ministry, 110,000 were laboring on a single line, the Beijing-Shanghai route, at the beginning of 2009 — who are building one of the largest infrastructure projects in history: a nationwide high-speed passenger rail network that, once completed, will be the largest, fastest, and most technologically sophisticated in the world.

Creating a rail system in a country of 1.3 billion people guarantees that the scale will be gargantuan. Almost 16,000 miles of new track will have been laid when the build-out is done in 2020. China will consume about 117 million tons of concrete just to construct the buttresses on which the tracks will be carried. The total amount of rolled steel on the Beijing-to-Shanghai line alone would be enough to construct 120 copies of the “Bird’s Nest” — the iconic Olympic stadium in Beijing.

The top speed on trains that will run from Beijing to Shanghai will approach 220 miles an hour. Last year passengers in China made 1.4 billion rail journeys, and Chinese railroad officials expect that in a nation whose major cities are already choked with traffic, the figure could easily double over the next decade.

Construction on the vast multibillion-dollar project commenced in 2005 and will run through 2020. This year China will invest $50 billion in its new high-speed passenger rail system, more than double the amount spent in 2008. By the time the project is completed, Beijing will have pumped $300 billion into it.

This effort is of more than passing historical interest. It can be seen properly as part and parcel of China’s economic rise as a developing nation modernizing at warp speed, catching up with the rich world and in some instances — like high-speed rail — leapfrogging it entirely.

Last November, as the developed world imploded — taking China’s massive export growth and the jobs it had created with it — Beijing announced a two-year, $585 billion stimulus package — about 13% of 2008 GDP.

Infrastructure spending was at its core. Beijing would pour even more money into bridges, ports, and railways in the hope that it could stimulate growth and — critically — absorb the excess labor that exporters, particularly in the Pearl River Delta, were shedding as their foreign sales shrank more than 20%.

At a moment when the developed world — the U.S., Europe, and Japan — is still stuck in the deepest recession since the early 1980s, China’s rebound is startling. And the news comes just as Washington is embroiled in its own debate about whether the U.S. requires — and can afford — another round of stimulus, since the first one, earlier this year, has thus far done little to halt the downturn. Tax cuts made up about one-third of the $787 billion package, and only $60 billion of the remaining $500 billion has been spent so far.

Proponents of more stimulus are likely to cite China’s example of what a properly designed stimulus program can accomplish. Maybe so. But a closer look at China’s high-speed rail program also reveals some risks that should factor into the “Why can’t we do that?” debate that’s surely coming in Washington.

Last year China Railway Construction Co., the nation’s largest railroad builder, hired 14,000 new university graduates — civil and electrical engineers mostly — from the class of 2008. This year, says Liang Yi, the vice CEO of the CRCC subsidiary working on the Beijing-to-Shanghai high-speed line, the company may hire up to 20,000 new university grads to cope with the company’s intensifying workload. But with the private sector cutting way back on hiring — and university students desperate for work — taking on that many new engineers and managers hasn’t been too difficult.

Consider that the Northeast Corridor, between Boston and Washington, D.C., is served by Amtrak’s Acela train, which clips along at a stately average speed of 79 miles an hour. There’s a lot of talk now, as part of President Obama’s stimulus plan, about upgrading the system and building new, faster lines all across the nation. In his stimulus bill Obama has allocated $8 billion over three years for high-speed rail, and 40 states are now bidding for the funds, with results to be released in September. Among the possibilities, California wants to link San Francisco with L.A. via a high-speed link. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) wants the private sector to get into the act, proposing a high-speed spur to connect Las Vegas with L.A.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Fortune)

President Obama may call a nationwide high-speed passenger rail network a priority, but it’s going to take a lot more than $8 billion to make it happen.

Though Thomas the Tank Engine earned a loyal following of American children in the 1980s and 1990s through his popular PBS television show, real trains have long been out of favor with the American public. Even Thomas was a British import.

Indeed, the fact that an early 20th-century steam locomotive — and not a sleek, high-speed model — so captured the modern young American imagination is an apt commentary on the state of train travel in the United States: The country lags years behind some of its peers.

America has 457 miles of high-speed track from Boston to Washington, D.C. In Japan, by comparison, trains netting speeds up to 188 miles-per-hour cross 1,360 miles of track; France features 1,180 miles of rail to support trains that can travel up to 199 miles-per-hour; and, as Bill Powell’s article, “China’s Amazing New Bullet Train,” shows in the latest issue of Fortune, China aspires to dart even farther ahead with its $300 billion high-speed rail project.

But President Barack Obama hopes to bridge this gap, emphasizing the importance of developing a nationwide high-speed rail network in several of his speeches. Just a month into his tenure, the President successfully urged Congress to dedicate $8 billion of February’s stimulus funds towards the system’s development.

“What we need … is a smart transportation system equal to the needs of the 21st century,” Obama said in a speech in April, the same month the Federal Railroad Administration released its prospectus for the high-speed program, “Vision for High-Speed Rail in America.” “[We need] a system that reduces travel times and increases mobility, a system that reduces congestion and boosts productivity, a system that reduces destructive emissions and creates jobs,” Obama continued in phraseology typical of his rhetoric. But it remains to be seen whether the U.S. government can translate “talk” into “walk” when it comes to high-speed rail.

Last month, 40 states — both individually and in groups — submitted 278 pre-applications for various stimulus-funded high-speed passenger rail projects, amounting to $102.5 billion in requests. Final applications are due August 24, and the FRA will begin distributing funds in September.

Click here to read the entire article. (Hat tip: WTSLosangeles@Twitter)

(Source: Streetsblog, WATodau.au.com, Smart Growth America)

Image Courtesy: Smart Growth America

Within the $787 billion stimulus bill that became law in February, Congress provided states and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) with $26.6 billion in flexible funds for transportation projects. Today marks 120 days from the apportionment of the funds to the states.

Smart Growth America released a report today examining how well states have been spending these billions. As they say on the Smart Growth America blog today, not only did the money arrive in a time of economic recession, but “at a time of embarrassingly large backlogs of road and bridge repairs, inadequate and underfunded public transportation systems, and too-few convenient, affordable transportation options.”

So after 120 days, how have states done in addressing these pressing needs and investing in progress for their communities?

After analyzing project descriptions provided by states and MPOs, Smart Growth America found forward looking states and communities that used the stimulus money as flexibly as possible, repairing roads and bridges and making the kinds of smart, 21st century transportation investments that their communities need to support strong economic growth.

While some states proved excellent at investing wisely and making progress, most states failed to fulfill pressing transportation needs. Nearly one-third of the money, $6.6 billion, went towards building new road capacity. Only 2.8% was spent on public transportation, and 0.9% percent on non-motorized projects.

The Secretary of Transportation, Ray Lahood, in his daily blog noted that ARRA is working successfully across America. Some folks in the transportation community are not totally happy about how the money had been spent. Streetsblog points out that $6.6B in Stimulus Cash is spent on New Roads, Not Repair. It says:

Distressingly — but unsurprisingly — quite a lot is going to new roads rather than repair of existing ones. Of the $26.6 billion sent to states under a flexible transportation mandate, SGA found that $6.6 billion has gone towards building new highway capacity.

Only $185 million of the flexible stimulus aid has been used on transit and non-motorized transportation, which was given about $8 billionin separate funding as well.

One culprit behind this questionable use of taxpayer money, as SGA reports, is a theme at risk of repeating itself during the upcoming debate over broad transportation reform: the lack of accountability.

Most states and localities reported the projects they selected for stimulus aid only after the fact, allowing a privately run website to monitor the process much faster than the Obama administration.

But inconsistent reporting is just the beginning of the problem, as SGA points out in its report:

Most states failed to educate, engage, and seek input from the public before making decisions. … There is not a clear articulation of what project portfolios should accomplish, no methods identified for evaluating projects against these goals or against one another, and few repercussions for achieving or failing to achieve these goals.

SGA mined the stimulus itself, as well as comments by administration officials, to produce a list of nine goals that can be used to evaluate its transportation spending. But the lack of tangible consequences for not meeting those goals has left states free to spend at will, often focusing more on the report’s No. 1 objective (“create and save jobs”) than Nos. 5 (“improve public transportation”), 7 (“cut greenhouse gas emissions”), and 8 (“not contribute to additional sprawl”).

Interestingly enough, Senior White House adviser David Axelrod says the economic stimulus package has not yet “broken the back of the recession” but set aside calls for a second massive spending bill. Republicans, meanwhile, have called the spending under way a failure.

Some economists and business leaders have called for a second spending bill designed to help guide the economy through a downturn that has left millions without jobs. Axelrod said it’s too early to know if more spending would be needed or if the administration would seek more money from Congress.

“Most of the stimulus money – the economic recovery money – is yet to be spent. Let’s see what impact that has,” Axelrod said. “I’m not going to make any judgment as to whether we need more. We have confidence that the things we’re doing are going to help, but we’ve said repeatedly, it’s going to take time, and it will take time. It took years to get into the mess we’re in. It’s not going to take months to get out of it.”

Click here to download Smart Growth for America’s report:  The States and the Stimulus – Are they using it to create jobs and 21st century transportation?

(Source: Streetsblog)

The federal DOT has just released its guidance for states seeking a share of its $8 billion in high-speed rail funding — and tucked in the rules are standards that could prove crucial to the project’s success.

The definition of high-speed rail can vary depending on the source. The original White House outline cited a top speed of 150 mph, while European and Asian networks can go as high as 200 mph.  Today’s DOT guidance uses the same standard that was outlined in last year’s Amtrak reauthorization bill: high-speed trains are those “reasonably expected to reach speeds of at least 110 mph.”

That standard appears flexible enough to include most regional rail plans. California’s high-speed authority believes the state’s service can reach a top speed of 220pm. The states working on a midwestern rail network with Chicago at the center, however, envision their trains achieving an average of 67 mph for local service and 78 mph for express rides.

Secretary LaHood observed the following on his blog:

“And now, the time has finally come for the United States to get serious about building a national network of high-speed rail corridors we can all be proud of.  A robust 21st Century economy requires efficient transportation of people from urban center to urban center. And, the guidance we publish today will evaluate proposals for their ability to:

• Make trips quicker and more convenient;
• Reduce congestion on highways and at airports; and
• Meet other environmental, energy and safety goals.

So, today the guidance; in mid-September we’ll be back with the first round of grant awards. I am proud to say the DOT is meeting its ARRA commitments and meeting them responsibly.

High-speed rail can reduce traffic congestion on the roads and in the skies, and it links conveniently with light rail, subways and buses for competitive door-to-door travel times. It will encourage economic growth and create new domestic jobs even as it makes our communities more livable.

The guidelines require rigorous financial and environmental planning to make sure projects are worthy of investment and likely to be successful. Both planning and construction are eligible, so states can apply for funds no matter what stage of development their project is in. ”

Click here to read the entire Streetsblog post.

(Source: CNN)

• Tunnel will link New Jersey with New York, doubles commuter rail capacity
• Part of project financed by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
• ARC, Access to the Region’s Core, expected to create 6,000 jobs

Image Courtesy: Arctunnel.com

The new tunnel, said to be the largest commitment to any transportation project anywhere in the United States in the history of the Department of Transportation, according to administrator Peter Rogoff of the Federal Transportation Administration, will link New Jersey with New York and eventually will double capacity on the nation’s busiest rail corridor, running from Washington to Boston, Massachusetts, officials said.

Officials participated in the groundbreaking for the $8.7 billion project as commuter trains passed behind them in North Bergen, New Jersey, before entering the existing train tunnel, which went into operation in 1908.

“As we start digging this tunnel, I think that what really it means, we are digging our way out of an economic crisis,” said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey. “As we’re getting under way, we’re seeing the dividends of the Recovery Act being paid right now.”

The project — known as ARC, for Access to the Region’s Core — is expected to create 6,000 design and construction jobs.New Jersey Transit says 170,000 passengers now travel through the existing train tunnel beneath the Hudson River to New York each day. When completed, the second tunnel will enable that figure to increase to 255,000 passenger trips. The additional passengers will disembark at a new concourse to be built at Penn Station in New York, 150 feet below street level.